Thursday, June 23

Government Bureaucracy

Thank you dear commentators for being so sympathetic with me and my passport issue, I really appreciate it even though I can’t consider this problem concerns me alone..

Also I like to give a special thanks to Bo-Rakan for adopting the case and presenting it to a wider public.

And although I would have liked to comment earlier but I had no connection line since Monday;
An MPW’s contractor or MEW’s contractor (never got to know which) who is executing projects in Salwa had accidentally damaged MOC’s cables and as a result more than 200 lines were cut off from Salwa area. I spend the past three days calling different numbers and everyone directed me to another, not only that, but each one’s story contradicted with the other, and I got nowhere and no answer to when will I get my line back. So I had to do my own calculations, this also reminded me of AlSan3oosi’s show the other night at Alrai when he played a vedio clip showing Salwa with its ever doomed excavation asking the officials in the government: when will this mess end?

A very valid question indeed.

Now without going much into details of why such accidents should happen in the first place and to that high level, which is by itself a different story, let’s see when I would most likely get my connection line:

The contractor claims that the repair work needs one week max, while MOC officials say: we don’t know!!!!

Let’s analyze the facts according to this scenario:

The contractor is counting the man-hours needed to repair as well as the cost of the repair, while the service ministry that is supervising the contractor who caused the damage is at lost, their calculations of the time needed for repair is subject to the following factors::

1-Who is responsible for this?

Is the contractor at fault or the ministry’s ill management was behind it? And who should bare the cost? The length of this period varies depending on the ministry’s project manager’s decision backed up by his team that, in most cases, are much less qualified than that of the contractor they are supervising, which could raise an issue for a serious dispute that might take a long time. But let’s assume that this cable case is much simpler than that and therefore the project manager has decided to issue a variation order right away.

2-Preparation of variation order by the contractor would take at least two days.

3- Approval of the variation order by the ministry’s officials which takes at least one week to circulate could also stretch to years depending on the two party’s bases of agreement.

And since we are talking about this dispute, it’s worth while mentioning that in most delayed cases some contractors take it on their own accounts to fix the damage without the approvals on the variation order, relying on the work order submitted by the project managers and the ministerial sectors they represent in an effort to meet the project’s completion date and therefore late fees can be avoided, they need to build a strong case though. And after the project is completed, the contractor would submit his claim and this is where a smart contractor can make a good buck when he calculates his claim exponentially with time; which means the longer it takes to pay his claim, the higher would become the claim. An example of that is the fact that more than 100 claims worth more than 30 million KD’s are still in MPW archives of which some are dated before the invasion and has not been settled yet.

Now back to the cable: if we take the contractor’s man hour calculation as one week of working days, that means; the minimum time I should be expecting my connection line back is not less than two weeks if I allowed some space for overlapping activities or it might take years; And that’s why the ministry’s officials don’t know how long it would take to repair the cable.

This problem is one of many problems Salwa is facing and one of its main causes is the service ministries themselves; each ministry’s project execution plans are not related to those of the other service ministries who are executing their projects in the same area. And although, supposedly, these projects all fall in the same infra structure plan, they sometimes conflict each other causing unnecessary delays, add to that the hidden cost that goes to waste due to the constant excavation and rebuilding of the same areas as each ministry is working on his own.
And although the same could be applicable to many areas in Kuwait, we see it more distinct in Salwa.

Then Bo-6ariq; do you expect anyone to be able to answer your question?


As for me I have decided to use the GPRS WAP technology to reconnect with my blog buddies before leaving for my summer vacation on 15th of July, and that’s if I could get my Schengen visa stamped on time, on my new passport which I still did not receive yet.

PS:
MEW: The Ministry of Electricity and Water AKA; the Ministry of Energy
MPW: The Ministry of Public Works
MOC: The Ministry of Communication
Posted by AyyA:: at :: 3:07 PM::

2 Comments:

 mishu1984 said...

not to mention that if you take the ministry to court it will take approx. 3 years for the case to get to the court, plus another 3 to settle, if not more, during which time the value fo the claim increases.

MOC, no offense to anyone, it the worst when it comes to the marine sector. they suck ass sideways with one leg handcuffed to a lightpost!!! its a miracle when something gets done in that dept.

4:04 AM  

 AyyA said...

ShQ8eya
Thanks 7abeebti, well this is Kuwait

Mishooooo
Thanks for dropping by sweetheart

2:17 AM  

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