Around 74,000 workers are still registered on expired government contracts with their visa situation having not been addressed, while the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) has dealt with the employment situation of about 85,000 workers registered on those contracts, whether by ensuring they left Kuwait or transferred their work permits to other contracts that are still in progress, Al Rai daily reported, quoting informed sources.
The Deputy Director of the Authority for Manpower Protection Affairs, Dr. Mubarak Al-Azmi, stated that there is coordination with all government agencies that have contracts for finished government projects, to take actions towards the contractors under the contracts, to settle the visas of workers registered on those contracts, while giving them a month period to implement the liquidation procedures and in case the contractor fails to comply, PAM shall be notified of this.
In this regard, Al-Rai learned from well-informed sources that the number of government contracts expired so far is about 850, while this number is witnessing a daily change of increase and decrease, according to the measures taken in this regard.
The sources pointed out that the number of workers registered on expired contracts, when PAM officially began handling this file began since September reached 159,000 workers, 85,000 of them were dealt with in the past four months, whether by leaving Kuwait or transferring to other government contracts that required the labor, and the remaining 74,000 other workers continue to be registered on the expired contracts.
In the same context, Al-Azmi clarified, in a press statement yesterday, that in light of the mandate issued by the Council of Ministers to PAM to follow-up on coordination with the relevant government agencies, legal measures have been taken towards addressing issues in the expired government contracts.
Regarding the most important future measures that will be taken, in order to avoid problems in government contracts, Al-Azmi indicated that there is currently coordination with the Central Agency for Public Tenders to set a condition that included in the tender documents submitted by government agencies, bidders are required to submit a clearance certificate issued by PAM in their bid documents. The clearance certificate ensures there are no suspensions on their prior expired or stalled government contracts. Bids that do not include this certificate are excluded from new projects.”
Read Today's News TODAY... on our Telegram Channel click here to join and receive all the latest updates t.me/thetimeskuwait
