Serious in graft battle
for the fi rst time in many years, i am beginning to feel the ministry of social affairs and labor is serious in fi ghting corruption with its own capabilities or in tackling the issue of visa traders. what made me feel this is the fi erce attack on her, the quality of her interrogators, and the number of interrogations which she was subjected to and i think 2018 will be a diffi cult year for those who trade in humans and those who forge certifi cates for the disabled, assistance manipulators and others. the public authority for manpower (pam) has recently announced that more than 200 companies have been referred to the public prosecution for bringing into the country 4,000 workers and failing to provide them jobs and abandoning them on the streets to face their destiny. according to pam offi cials these companies have been punished and will now have to pay more than kd 4 million in fi nes, something which we had not heard of before during the tenure of former ministers. for the fi rst time we see the minister of social affairs and labor, the senior employees and director ahmad almousa exerting all out efforts to track down visa traders and owners of fake companies. the punishment is meted out to all those who are involved in this scam. we hope this effort will not stop at the door of the corrupt infl uential people whoever they may be. the total number of companies whose fi les have been suspended has reached more than 7,200 owned by thousands of citizens, including those who claim they are honest and committed to religious ethics but to the contrary have exploited the weak and over the years were involved in rampant corruption. with the help of some mps and infl uential people they have been trading in humans. five hundred and sixty three companies were referred to the interrogation department in 2017 and so far eight this year. most of the people who are ‘harmed’ by the actions of minister hind alsabeeh are a majority of those who sought to grill her again and again, and question sincere offi cials of her ministry – women and men – who support the minister directly or otherwise. the other category of people who are affected by the strict actions taken by the ministry are the employees, victims of visa traders, the traders who have robbed them and their families because they have paid money to come to kuwait only to fi nd no shelter over their head, food or work. now it is the responsibility of the ministry to repatriate these victims at its expense with the money collected from visa traders in the form of fi nes. the recent parliamentary grilling revealed the opportunism and meanness of the muslim brotherhood, after some of them supported the no-confi - dence motion. this is a silly game and a religious party should have not been a party to it because the party always says it upholds its integrity and works in total transparency but these people are well-known to be opportunists.
