KUWAIT CITY, 12 April 2005 — Kuwaiti lawmakers yesterday called on the Deputy Premier and State Minister for Cabinet Affairs Mohammad Daifallah Sharar, to quit over allegations of corruption and mismanagement.
Parliament in December ordered the Audit Bureau, the state’s accounting watchdog, to investigate allegations that Sharar was to blame for squandering hundreds of millions of dollars of public funds.
The charges were made during a questioning by liberal MPs Ahmad Al-Mulaifi and Ali Al-Rashed who claimed the minister had either taken part in alleged graft or failed to stop corruption in departments under his authority.
In its report, the Audit Bureau confirmed a number of the claims and complained that it did not receive enough cooperation from some government agencies.
“The report confirms our claims ... I call on the minister to act in a brave manner, take responsibility and quit,” Rashed told yesterday’s special session held to discuss the report. “This is an historic opportunity to declare war on corruption. The minister should be held accountable and I advise him to resign, it’s time to leave,” Islamist MP Waleed Al-Tabtabai said.
But Sharar told the house he had already sent parts of the report to the public prosecution to launch a criminal investigation into the allegations.
MPs backing Sharar accused his opponents of targeting the minister for personal reasons and because he “belongs to Kuwaiti tribes”.
