Manama: A Kuwaiti minister has challenged her detractors to report alleged irregularities and malpractices to the legal authorities, stressing that microblog and social media pressure would not affect her.
Some sites in the northern Arabian Gulf state accused the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour of failing to deal with irregular situations and of lapsing into silence when action was needed, especially in cooperative societies.
“Those who are raising these issues are people who are using anonymous social media accounts in order not to be identified,” Hind Al Sabeeh said.
“Unfortunately, people tend to think they can exert pressure through Twitter. Anyone who has any document or evidence against Hind Al Sabeeh should go to the Public Prosecution or to the anti-corruption commission in order to have an investigation launched and people’s rights are protected,” the minister was quoted as saying by Kuwaiti daily Al Rai on Sunday.
Al Sabeeh said that she was not the type who fears any type of pressure.
“Some people are using social media to level accusations and to attack the measures taken by the ministry in dealing with some cases. Thank God, such tactics do not work with me.”
“Whoever has something and claims he or she is taking the country’s higher interests at heart should go to the official and competent authorities to report irregularities. They should seek justice instead of resorting to Twitter to mislead people. We must never forget that litigation is permitted in order to protect public funds and the interests of the people.”
Al Sabeeh said that she had set up three committees to look into the cases of the cooperative societies to ensure there are no abuses or oversights.
“I have made it a policy to have a committee look into the work of another committee to ensure we have a safety net and protect rights. We did find slips at times and they were fixed thanks to the system.”