"Offending democracy or parliamentary work in Kuwait," is accepted by no one the Minister told a National Assembly session today referring to a story by the Egyptian Al-Ahram written some weeks before on what it called anger in the Kuwaiti streets over the performance of the legislative branch.
It is the job of the legislative and executive powers to combat such act "whoever" commits it, the Minister said noting that the Ministry of Information had taken the necessary measures to investigate the issue to reach the truth sought by all.
In the wake of Al-Ahram story, Al-Muhailbi formed a fact-finding committee to investigate the matter. The committee reached certain results which he referred to as "not conclusive." Al-Ahram wrote about "some parliamentary practices that hindered development and paralyzed Kuwait’s economy over the years, a matter that aroused anger in the Kuwait’s streets." The paper directed accusations to a certain parliamentary bloc in the parliament.
The Ministry took further measures to get things clearer including letters to the Egyptian daily, the Ministry of Communications and the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).
"We will receive official replies to our letters and we will refer all the relevant documents and information to the fact-finding committee," the Minister told today’s session.
He also expressed hope that the MPs would give the committee members the "confidence and the opportunity to help them achieve the mission assigned to them." Al-Muhailbi emphasized that the Ministry would conceal no information or results and that he would not hesitate subjecting whoever proved to be guilty in the issue to the law regardless of his post.
Parliament wants Kuwait to disclose size of oil reserves
Reuters: Several Kuwaiti deputies have threatened not to approve this year’s national budget if the government fails to disclose the size of its oil reserves, a newspaper reported.
Parliament is expected to approve the budget of the major Opec producer by the end of its final session on Wednesday before a summer break.
"We cannot make the correct future plans without knowing the size of the reserves… so this should be made clear to parliamentarians before the session to pass the state budget," Alam Alyawm newspaper quoted deputy Ahmad Lari as saying.
MP Daifallah Buramya also told the paper he would not support approval of the state’s budget if the size of the country’s oil reserves is not disclosed.
Paper quoted an unidentified official source as saying the government is prepared to disclose the size of reserves in a closed-door session but will require time to do so since it has to collect data.
The size of the oil reserves is a sensitive issue in Kuwait since Industry newsletter Petroleum Intelligence Weekly (PIW) said in January 2006 it had seen internal records showing they were about 48 billion barrels, half the officially stated 99 billion.
The difference is equal to over four per cent of global proved oil reserves, according to data in BP’s annual statistical review.
Former Oil Minister Shaikh Ali Al Jarrah Al Sabah, who resigned last month, sparked confusion when he told the daily Al Jarida in May he could not deny these estimates while at the same time questioning how reserves were defined. Depending on definition, a wide range of estimates could be correct, he said.
Shaikh Ali later refused to elaborate or clarify his comments. He had previously said the government would not disclose the oil reserves.
Kuwait, the world’s seventh-largest oil exporter, has production capacity of around 2.8 million bpd. The Opec member produced around 2.4 million bpd in May, according to a Reuters data.
