Although 12 years have passed for the issuance of Law No. 37 of 2010 regarding the organization of privatization programs and operations, its implementation has been disappointing.
An oversight report that has been issued in this regard, a copy of has been obtained by a local Arabic daily, said the report warned of a clear weakness in the government asset privatization programs that were slated to be privatized a long time ago, which means that the technical staff of the privatization programs, as well as the Supreme Council for Privatization that it heads and supervises its work, does not play the role required of them in this aspect.
The report included a response from the technical staff of the privatization programs, in which it said that it has a plan for many government assets that will be privatized, according to time stages:
— Privatization of the Northern Shuaiba station for electric power generation, the main concerns of electricity and water, and the communications sector, which includes “land fixed lines and broadband.”
— Northern Shuaiba Station Work has been resumed to allocate the electric power generation station and work is currently underway to achieve this on the ground.
— The electricity privatization plan is “stopped” due to the failure to form the Supreme Council for Privatization, which is entrusted with approving the best proposed privatization methods.
— Privatization of the telecommunications sector remaining in the custody of the state. The Economic Committee of the Council of Ministers issued a decision to disqualify the Privatization Programs Apparatus from playing this role, and assigned the Authority for Partnership Projects between the public and private sectors to search for ways to privatize the assets of the Ministry of Communications related to landlines. and broadband.
The report stated that the Privatization Programs Authority obtained 2.3 million dinars during 2021-2022, allocated for contracts concluded with consulting offices to conduct the necessary studies for the work of the technical staff and the Supreme Council for Privatization, and they were not disbursed, which resulted in charging the state’s general budget with this amount without justification.
The technical body for privatization programs said that it had actually moved to offer two consulting practices related to the work of the privatization body, and the body, in turn, finished evaluating their results, and in light of that, the book of the Central Agency for Public Tenders was sent approving the offers submitted by international consulting offices that have great experience in privatization programs.
However, the Central Agency for Public Tenders did not award the two practices to the winning consulting firms, which delayed the use of financial appropriations amounting to 2.3 million dinars.
The technical body for privatization confirmed that it will work to expedite the Central Agency for Public Tenders in completing the awarding of consulting contracts according to the legal principles followed in this regard.
The oversight report stressed the need for the Council of Ministers to quickly form the Supreme Council for Privatization so that the technical body of the privatization programs can properly perform its tasks and not delay the procedures for privatizing public projects, given that the Supreme Council for Privatization is the supervisor of the work of the technical body.
The technical staff of the privatization program years ago prepared preliminary studies for the entities slated to be privatized, and left them to the private sector in order to manage and promote them and raise their revenues, which are as follows:
- Kuwait International Airport
- Ministry of Communications sector
- Shuaiba North Station
- Shuwaikh Port
- Kuwait Aircraft Fuel Supply Company (KAFCO)
- Kuwait Aviation Services Company (KASCO)
- Tourism Projects Company
- Kuwait Public Transportation Company (KPTC)
- Kuwait government press
- The main concerns of the Ministry of Electricity and Water.
- Postal sector of the Ministry of Communications
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