The Ministry of Interior and the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) are said to be working together with US law and judicial authorities, after it emerged that the sub-contractors to a logistics company having a large logistics contract with the US Army base in Kuwait, brought in thousands of Indian workers in exchange for money. The workers who were brought in under specific work visas were later found to be working on contract jobs, for which they were not qualified, at the US Army base.
As part of the investigation, the PAM and security personnel have also drawn up a list of 12 companies that are approved to provide services to the US Army, and have rejected the transactions of other firms after discovering they were found involved in unlawful activities. Legal measures will be taken against the involved companies, and the Indian ‘managers’ of the sub-contractors, for their alleged role in obtaining contracts and sub-contracts from the US Army base.
The logistics company is alleged to have obtained contracts worth billions of dollars to provide civil logistical services at the US Army base in Kuwait. The authorities are now believed to be reviewing the contracts to ascertain the level of bribes and other infringements involved in the contracts, and, the Competition Protection Authority could also take part in the investigation at a later stage to make sure that ‘monopolistic practices’ were not involved in the awarding and implementation of the logistic contracts.