KUWAIT: Kuwait’s oil minister yesterday rejected charges by some politicians about legal violations in contracts awarded for a $15 billion oil refinery project and said the courts had ruled that they were baseless.
“The judiciary had concluded ... that the suspicion of infringing on public funds in issues relevant to the refinery were unfounded,” Mohammad Al-Olaim said in a statement carried by the official news agency KUNA.
Olaim said a citizen, whom he did not identify, had brought the issue before the courts about six months ago.
A parliamentary committee has been probing some contracts awarded for the building of the 615,000 barrels per day Al-Zour refinery on the grounds that lower bids were ignored.
Last month, the committee signaled its support for the government to go ahead with the project after Olaim cooperated in the probe.
Olaim’s remarks came after a group of politicians warned the government not to sign the contracts, saying the tender process had violated the law.
Parliamentarians from the Popular Action bloc have said that, among other issues, the government should not have awarded US firm and project manager Fluor Corp a separate contract.