Only in Kuwait is one likely to hear of the government stepping in to compensate victims of financial follies under pressure from parliament.
Citizen buys shares on the stock exchange; the shares tank; compensate the citizen says parliament. Citizen invests in an unsound business that goes belly up; compensate the citizen says the MP. Citizen takes loan from bank, spends it on trivialities and cannot repay the loan; strike off the citizen’s loan says parliament. In each case, the government complies.
Now a new proposal has been submitted in parliament by MPs Osama Al-Shaheen, Dr. Adel Al- Damkhi, Khalid Muhammad Al-Otaibi, Abdullah Fehad Al-Anzi and Saleh Ahmed Al-Ashour to establish a fund for compensating victims of real estate fraud.
The reason given for establishing the fund is that the number of real estate fraud victims exceeded 20,000 citizens and the total amount of money involved is estimated at KD3 billion. Due to the large number of victims the MPs suggested ratification of a law on establishing a fund to compensate these victims — similar to the fund for supporting the Capital Market Authority shareholders who incurred huge losses.
If you did not read that figure right, it was 20,000 citizens who fell victim to the fraud. Did no one ever explain the term ‘caveat emptor’ to citizens. For the uninitiated, the term means: The buyer is responsible for checking the quality and suitability of goods before a purchase is made.
But this explanation is unlikely to stop the government from conforming to the demands of lawmakers and forming a fund for fraud victims.
