Kuwait Times

Published Date: November 16, 2009
By B Izzak, Staff Writer

KUWAIT: Opposition Islamist MP Faisal Al-Mislem yesterday carried out his threat and filed a request to grill the prime minister over allegations his office misused public funds and that he issued a cheque to a former MP, placing the country on the brink of another major political confrontation like the ones that rocked the country over the past three-and-a-half years. Mislem accused Prime Minister HH Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah that his office has misappropriated tens of millions of dinars an
d that he issued at least one cheque of KD 200,000 to a former MP in June 2008.

Minister of Communications and Minister of State for National Assembly Affairs Dr Mohammad Al-Busairi declared that the government "is ready to deal with any interpellation according to the constitution and the law." The Cabinet's stand has been made public in the past, he affirmed.

More grillings are in the pipeline and at least two more are expected to be filed this week. There could be even more depending on political developments in this highly decisive week. More than half of the grilling request is a duplicate of a similar grilling filed by Mislem on March 1 but was never debated because the National Assembly was dissolved in the same month and fresh elections were held in May.

Speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi told reporters he has informed the prime minister of the grilling request, adding that it will be placed on the agenda of the Dec 8 session. Mislem said he decided to file the grilling yesterday so as not to be listed on the Nov 17 session, with the aim to give ample time to MPs to debate and approve bills to purchase consumer loans.

Many scenarios have been proposed for the grilling, including sending the request to the constitutional court, asking the assembly to delay the debate for a long period or referring the issue to the legal and legislative committee. Under Kuwaiti law, the grilling must be debated at least eight days after filing it unless the prime minister or minister asks for a delay for two weeks. Any further delay must be approved by the Assembly.

Mislem said the first part of the grilling is based on a report by the Audit Bureau over allegations of financial irregularities at the office of the prime minister. Muslim's 34-page grilling alleges that public funds were not spent in accordance with proper financial and accounting procedures under Kuwaiti law by the office of the prime minister. The allegations date back to the election campaign in May 2008 when MP Ahmad Al-Mulaifi charged there were misappropriation of funds by the prime minister's offi
ce.

More than 20 MPs filed a proposal on June 24 last year to launch an investigation into the allegations and the Assembly voted to ask the Audit Bureau to conduct the probe. A few months later, the Audit Bureau submitted its findings in a report to the government which studied it and decided to form a special committee to study the findings. Eventually, the government decided in February to refer the Audit Bureau report to the public prosecution for criminal action.

Mislem said in his grilling request that the Audit Bureau found out irregularities in the finances of the prime minister's office especially on gifts, hospitality, celebrations and trips. It was reported that KD 23 million were spent on these items in late 2007 and early 2008, and the Audit Bureau said it could not establish details of the gifts, names of beneficiaries, value of each gift and the reasons for presenting them. The Bureau said it also failed to determine if the prices of the gifts were exagge
rated because the prime minister's office refused to provide details or receipts of the purchase orders in violation of the Assembly's assignment.

Mislem said he has sent many questions to the prime minister inquiring about what actions had been taken against those involved in the irregularities and also about the cheques. The prime minister and the government refused to answer the questions on the basis that the issues were being investigated by the public prosecution.

Regarding the cheque, Muslim said that on March 1 this year he sent a question to the prime minister asking if he had issued cheques to any current or former MPs. Mislem said that a senior official at the prime minister's office immediately denied that the prime minister had issued any cheques in favour of current or former MPs.

Two weeks ago, Mislem showed in the Assembly a copy of a KD 200,000 cheque issued in June 2008 to a member of parliament at that time who later lost his seat in this year's snap polls. The name of the former MP was not revealed. Mislem said that after showing the copy of the cheque, the prime minister's lawyer Emad Al-Saif immediately acknowledged that the prime minister issued the cheque but from his personal money.

A few days later, the prime minister himself said he issued the cheque from his private funds for a humanitarian cause. Mislem alleged that the prime minister and his aides misled the Assembly and the Kuwaiti people by denying the cheque issue and then later acknowledging it and trying to find a coverup.

Opposition MP Musallam Al-Barrak called on the prime minister to accept the grilling and to defend himself in the Assembly. In the span of next week, Barrak is expected to file a request to grill Interior Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Khaled Al-Sabah, and MP Mubarak Al-Waalan is expected to file to grill Minister of Public Works and Municipality Fadhel Safar.

In other business, the legal and legislative committee yesterday approved a number of draft laws calling to increase the monthly allowance for children of Kuwaitis from KD 50 to KD 75. The committee also approved a draft law to reduce the voting age from 21 to 18 and another bill granting the voting right to servicemen. On its part, the financial and economic affairs committee decided to delay its decision of bills on the purchase of consumer loans until after Nov 17 session which is scheduled to discuss t
he issue. Several MPs criticized the committee and vowed that they will decide during the session to ask the committee to study the bill instantly to vote on it during the session.