His Royal Highness Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa the Prime Minister, who presided over the regular weekly cabinet meeting at Gudaibiya Palace, directed all Government departments to fully co-operate with the Fact Finding Commission whose work kicked off on Sunday.
Cabinet Affairs’ Minister Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed said that His Royal Highness the Prime Minister instructed all government ministries and authorities to cooperate fully and continuously with the Royal Fact-Finding Commission in order to help make a success of its tasks and realize the sought objectives for the sake of which the Commission has been created to reveal all facts. His Royal Highness encouraged citizens awareness in this regards.
He emphasized that instructions were issued to all governmental ministries and authorities to remove any obstacles and to provide all facilities for the Commission’s job in order to be able to carry out its tasks in the most perfect manner on the occasion of commencement of its business.
His Royal Highness the Prime Minister also instructed all ministers – especially the services ministries and authorities – to open their offices before the citizens and to listen to their complaints and to look into their cases and follow-up all of their queries and remarks through the various audio-visual media as citizens transactions and applications should be attended to by all ministries from the ministry’s top to the bottom of the pyramid.
The cabinet approved the Ministry of Education’s request to extend the school day in high secondary schools starting from the second semester in the academic year 2011-2012 and that the necessary additional budgets should be allocated for this purpose. This comes within the framework of the study conclusions undertaken by the Ministry of Education together with one of the international expertise firms in harmony with the recommendations made by the Education and Training Development Committee aimed at developing quality of education and improvement of its output. Extending the school day up to 14:15 as per the memo submitted from the Minister of Education in this respect helps increase the days of learning from 122 days per school year up to 154 days per school year which means an increase by 43 school days. This will also reflect positively on increasing learning hours to be commensurate with internationally accredited standards.
The cabinet also ratified the Kingdom of Bahrain’s joining the Regional Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (RCREEE) and authorized the Minister of Energy to sign on the center’s charter. The center aims at implementing studies and programs related to renewable energy and energy efficiency and developing efficiency indices and assisting in building databases and setting national plans in this field.
The cabinet cited the development mobility seen in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the promptest strides made in building and development processes. The cabinet reviewed the report submitted from the Minister of Works regarding tenders offered by the Ministry of Works and tenders which have been awarded which illustrates the Ministry of Works total tenders in the first half of 2011 reached 42 tenders in consideration for BD 50.6 million. Meanwhile the total tenders awarded during the same period were 45 tenders in consideration for an amount of BD 76.7 million. These tenders comprised numerous areas related to the roads sector, sewerage sector and construction sector.
The cabinet approved the Kingdom of Bahrain’s hosting of the 3rd Regional Conference of the International Roads Association organized in cooperation with the same association, the Ministry of Works as well as the Bahrain Engineers Society.
The cabinet also approved a motion from the House of Representatives for organizing health visits to old people’s homes by nurses and social workers. The cabinet also approved a motion regarding opening emergency centers in all governorates in the Kingdom.