As Al-Kindari, the sixth secretary-general, put it, the idea was to "hold intensive training sessions" for legislators and their staff because they were the "targeted group." "For several National Assembly (NA) sessions now, we have been training legislators’ staff," Al-Kindari said. He added that the last session focused on what was required from new legislators and their staff.
The training was provided by experts from outside the NA and from Kuwait University as well as some heads of departments within the NA. Turning to the duties of the Secretary-general himself, he said they fell into two categories in compliance with the NA standing orders, one is administrative and the other parliamentary.
The secretary-general’s duties are like those of an undersecretary and the departments stemming from that post are like those stemming from other undersecretaries in other ministries. This applies to financial and administrative matters.
As for the parliamentary side of his duties, the secretary-general prepares after each NA session a summary of proceedings and the debates that took place as well as the resolutions adopted so as to put this information at the disposal of the media in line with article 95 of the standing orders.
He added that the secretary-general’s office also prepares the agenda of the NA sessions including the items to be debated "in the order in which they were received.
The secretary-general was also in charge of monitoring the quorum so as to be ready to tell the speaker at any time whether or not a quorum was available.
Another duty of the secretary-general was to be briefed on any question or grilling to be submitted in NA proceedings. The secretary-general is briefed on any MP’s question and then the secretary-general tells the speaker beforehand about the question leaving to him (speaker) the power to allow the question to be put to other legislators or the cabinet or to be rejected.
Al-Kindari pointed out that, as a result of some new amendments to the standing orders, the names of legislators are read at the beginning of each session so they would be entered as present or absent.
After the names are read and the attendance recorded, the secretary-general then reads the list of items on the agenda and any other suggestions submitted and entered in the order they are received.
Everything submitted to the speaker is prepared by the secretary-general’s department, which also checks the starting time of the session and the time taken by proceedings.
The secretary-general also warns the speaker when time is up for proceedings. He added that it was the responsibility of the secretary-general and his staff to cross out anything from the minutes as told by the speaker. The same goes for the video recordings of the sessions.
Al-Kindari stated that every legislator gets, at the beginning of a regular session, a briefcase containing the constitutions of Kuwait and a copy of the standing orders as well as a guide on properly submitting questions or grilling and signing them before being referred to the speaker.
Turning to the issue of participation in Arab, Islamic or international parliamentary conferences, Al-Kindari said the duties of the secretary-general was to arrange for all pertinent information to be conveyed to the speaker as well as any appointments with foreign officials or visits by them to him.
Before any such conferences, the secretary-generals (of the various parliaments) meet to discuss the items to be included on the agenda of the upcoming conference.
At the level of the GCC, Kuwait has submitted, through former secretary-general of the NA, Sharida Al-Ma’ousharji, a proposal for all GCC secretary-generals to meet every year and discuss some matters pertaining to their duties.
Those meetings focus on several issues and usually lead to resolutions aimed at improving the performance of secretary-generals and their staff. Moreover, such meetings are aimed at exchanging information and expertise among secretary-generals and at arranging training for their staff.
Al-Kindari described the ties among the various secretary-generals as "strong and helpful to GCC member states when they attend foreign conferences." He said that the launch of the association of GCC secretary-generals was also submitted by the previous secretary-general.
He also stressed that the newspaper Al-Dustur was launched in line with a proposal submitted by the previous secretary-general as well.
He said the newspaper was objective, contrary to earlier expectations that it would be loyal to one political side against another.
At first, it was hard for the newspaper to be objective. But it was able to remain loyal only to a constitutional institution and to reflect all political trends alike.
He said that the newspaper was popular with all GCC member states and all Islamic and Arab states alike.
GCC member states also wanted to receive copies of the Kuwaiti constitution and a copy of the standing orders.
Turning to the marketing of the NA’s activities for the Kuwaiti public, Al-Kindari said "we are not up to such marketing at both the secretary-general level and any other level.
But if there was proper marketing for every proposal, there would be a positive reaction to the NA, specifically since the current NA session is the most fertile in resolutions adopted and laws passed," he said.
He blamed local media for giving the wrong impression about the work done by the NA. He said proper marketing of the NA activities consisted in arranging visits to the NA by schools, the disabled and employees of various institutions specifically when the NA is in session.
Visitors to the NA can hold mini-sessions at parliament to get the impression of the normal activities that take place there and to increase public awareness of goings-on in parliament.
