Coordination gaps hamper price control, unification in departments

• Ongoing job attrition and budget cuts in the Commercial Control and Consumer Protection Sector of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry undermine stability, skilled staff development, and effective consumer awareness strategies.

• The administration can’t conduct economic surveys or establish a control system for monitoring price changes and food quality due to a lack of experts.

• The administration’s failure to survey consumer needs and coordinate with the Commercial Control Department hinders food security planning.

A supervisory report revealed that the Commercial Control and Consumer Protection Sector of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry faces obstacles hindering its full performance, Al Qabas newspaper reported.

The Audit Bureau report indicated that most of the sector’s work is concentrated in the Commercial Control Department and the Consumer Protection Department, and that the work accomplished in the rest of the sector’s organizational units is weak with little interest in its outputs. This has led to employees in those units not caring about completing their assigned work efficiently and effectively, given the weak human and financial capabilities available to fully activate their specializations.

The report continued: The sector also suffers from horizontal expansion in the organizational structure of the Consumer Protection and Control Sector, leading to overlaps in competencies between departments and sections. For example:

First: The responsibilities of the Commercial Fraud Suppression and Awareness Department overlap with those of the Commercial Control Department, while the responsibilities of the Commercial Studies and Support Department remain inactive due to unclear procedures.

Second: There is an overlap in the competencies of the Commercial Support and Administrative Studies and Investigation departments, despite both being under the Commercial Studies and Support Department.

Control Sector faces inspector imbalance

The report highlighted the lack of technical staff in some departments capable of performing the necessary tasks, coupled with a small number of employees. This shortfall has led to the failure to activate many of the specialized functions within the Control and Consumer Protection Sector.

It explained that the Control Sector suffers from poor distribution of inspectors across work centers, resulting in overcrowding at some centers and insufficient staffing at others. This situation requires a review of inspector allocation to better align with the workload at each center and to enhance work efficiency and effectiveness.

Additionally, the report pointed out that the commercial control sector faces ongoing job attrition, which undermines work stability and the development of skilled staff. It also noted that the inadequate budget for departments responsible for consumer awareness studies hinders their ability to develop a clear strategy for regulating and monitoring market mechanisms, including interactions between consumers and merchants and commodity pricing.

Non-activation of specializations

The report stated that some departments were unable to activate certain functions:

First: Managing commercial surveys and price control

1. The administration has been unable to prepare economic surveys to monitor changes in food and consumer goods prices due to a lack of specialized experts.
2. The administration has not established a written, approved, and robust control system to monitor violations and manipulation of commodity prices and the quality of food products.
3. There has been a failure to update the laws, regulations, and legislation governing the administrative inspection profession within the Consumer Protection and Control Sector.
4. The administration failed to conduct surveys on consumer opinions and basic needs for various food commodities, impeding the preparation of strategic plans to enhance food security, partly due to a lack of coordination with the Commercial Control Department within the same sector.

Second: Studies and commercial support department

1. The administration has been unable to conduct surveys to monitor violations and types of commercial fraud or to develop appropriate solutions due to a lack of specialized employees.
2. There has been a failure to provide commercial support to the commercial control sector by studying and updating laws, regulations, and legislation to address commercial fraud, also due to a lack of specialized legal staff.
3. There is a lack of coordination with the Specifications and Standards Sector of the Public Authority for Industry in obtaining technical opinions on standard specifications for certain food products and consumer goods, which impedes the resolution of consumer complaints.

Third: Managing the suppression of commercial fraud, awareness

1. Failure to activate the administration’s role in supervising the preparation and periodic review of draft amendments to sector laws, which would ensure proper commercial transactions and protect the rights of workers in the commercial sector.
2. The administration has not developed plans or programs to create studies related to consumer awareness and address commercial fraud. Additionally, it has failed to establish timetables for implementing these plans due to a lack of budget and inadequate coordination with official bodies tasked with consumer protection and fraud suppression.
3. There is a lack of direct coordination with the Union of Consumer Cooperative Societies, which has resulted in insufficient advisory support for price control and standardization across cooperative societies, as well as a lack of media campaigns to promote Kuwaiti products.
4. There are no studies on customs release requests for certain imported goods or on complaints and cases related to commercial fraud, despite the existence of the Consumer Studies and Awareness Department, which is responsible for preparing these studies and proposing solutions to reduce fraud.

Fourth: Commercial Control Department:

1. The absence of a general inspection plan for distributing work related to complaints, reports, and inspection tours. Currently, the distribution of tasks relies on each center director assigning work to inspectors based on their available expertise.
2. The competencies for monitoring, follow-up, and coordination related to other departments include the following:

• Following up on the issuance of the country of origin confirmation certificate for the Consumer Protection Department and monitoring the implementation of consumer protection laws within the jurisdiction of the Commercial Fraud Suppression and Awareness Department.
• Monitoring the preparation of research, reports, and field studies on price fluctuations and coordinating between external centers and commercial markets to address issues that hinder the inspection process is the responsibility of the Commercial Survey Studies and Price Control Department.
• The absence of job description cards for 353 job titles across all departments within the Consumer Protection and Control Sector leads to unclear responsibilities and reduced work efficiency.

Departments compete to grant inspector status for financial perks

The report indicated that departments within the sector are rushing to grant their employees the status of inspector to secure related allowances and financial benefits, similar to other departments. This has led to overlapping oversight from multiple departments on a single entity, which negatively affects market mechanisms due to misuse. Therefore, it is necessary to explore other types of allowances that align with the departments’ work and contribute to improving their operational performance.