RIYADH: A recommendation to increase the pensions of social insurance beneficiaries was presented at the Shoura Council’s weekly meeting on Sunday.
The suggestion — submitted by the council’s Administration and Human Resources Committee — to increase pensions from the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) follows a recent announcement to increase government retirement funds by 15 percent. Shoura members welcomed the plan. However, a clause within the recommendation limiting the increase to the GOSI’s financial abilities was met with skepticism, with many members saying this was an obstacle.
Council members did not vote on the recommendation; voting will take place once the Administration and Human Resources Committee delivers its response to the members’ concerns. The Shoura Council’s Committee for Transportation, Telecommunication and IT also presented its recommendation to approve funds required by the Ministry of Transport to execute new projects. The proposal follows a discussion over the Ministry of Transport’s annual financial report.
Voting on approving the funding has been postponed until the Committee for Transportation, Telecommunication and IT delivers its response to Council members’ comments.
Council members also called for moves to organize the movement of taxis inside cities and increase the monitoring of ongoing road projects to ensure they are executed to a high standard. Speaking about problems facing the Ministry of Transport, Abdul Aziz Al-Tuwajri, president of the Committee for Transportation, Telecommunication and IT, said the ministry suffers from shortages in qualified manpower and funds. He added that the existence of multiple bodies dealing in internal transport was another negative obstacle facing the ministry.
Al-Tuwajri said the ministry has finished preparing its national transportation strategy to upgrade transportation in the Kingdom. The strategy is close to completion and will soon be discussed by council members.
He added that there is 98 percent Saudization in the Ministry of Transport. Council member Abdullah Nasief, however, said the ministry has more than 500 vacant jobs and that these vacancies should be filled to lessen the Kingdom’s unemployment rate.
