Kuwait parliament assigns state audit bureau to examine K-Dow deal

Backed by the government, the National Assembly (parliament) has given the thumbs up to a recommendation entrusting the State Audit Bureau (SAB) with conducting a detailed study and report on the K-Dow deal within one month's time. The study should involve everything bearing on the controversial deal from the very beginning and until it was scrapped, according to the recommendation approved during a National Assembly sitting dedicated to the issue. All ministries and state bodies should provide the SAB with all documents and papers it may need for its mission to work out the required study, it requested. The recommendation asked the SAB to use as a reference a couple of studies previously conducted by the Cabinet and the Fatwa and Legislation Department on the K-Dow contract. Once the report is completed, the SAB should send copies of it to the Ministry of Oil and the National Assembly Speaker for relevant appropriate procedures. The K-Dow deal was hammered out by the Dow Company and the Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC) of the State of Kuwait, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC), but it was abrogated due mostly to the global financial crisis in 2008. Dow currently has arbitration pending against KPC. The original deal had a clause that triggered damages up to USD 2.5 billion. Minister of Oil Ali Al-Omair said the recommendation was supported by the government and the parliament, vowing that the government would respond once the names of any officials involved in the issue were identified. The government had previously sent many senior officials and ministers, including His Highness the prime minister himself, to the court of ministers, he said. The government will not hesitate to reveal the names of any officials proven guilty in the case, or to take appropriate action against them, the minister promised. Remarks and suggestions voiced by members of parliament today would be taken into account while delving into the circumstances of the deal, he pointed out. Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah urged any MP who may have evidence or information on any corruption or plundering of public funds to send it to the Public Prosecution. MP Jamal Al-Omar, who is the head of the public fund protection committee, said the committee had asked to use the help of an international investigation office for the case.