DOHA: The new Cabinet is all set to begin work from today after the new faces inducted into it had introductory meetings with senior staff members of their respective ministries last Thursday.
Foreign Minister H E Dr Khalid bin Mohammed Al Attiyah is expected to hold an interface with senior ministry officials today as he spent the Thursday meeting diplomats.
Al Attiyah is not new to the Foreign Ministry as he has been the Minister of State and knows most of his ministerial colleagues closely.
Minister of Economy and Trade, H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani, visited his ministry’s headquarters on Thursday and met with the department heads and directors and was briefed about their responsibilities and work.
For the new Minister of Finance, H E Ali Sherif Al Emadi, too, it will be his first working day after he held meetings with senior ministerial staff on Thursday. In his interface with colleagues, Al Emadi stressed the importance of productivity and coordination to avoid duplication of work. He told his colleagues in no uncertain terms that he was there to carry out the directives of the Emir, H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, particularly about his emphasis on raising employees’ productivity and performance. Al Emadi is likely to meet senior officials of the Finance Ministry in the days to come and discuss with them how best employees’ efficiency can be improved.
H E Ahmed Al Hammadi, the new environment minister, also visited the headquarters of his ministry on Thursday and is expected to begin his work today.
H E Jassim bin Seif Al Sulaiti, the transport minister, too visited the ministry’s headquarters late last week and is all set to begin work today. The Transport Ministry has been created as Qatar hopes to have large rail networks and expressways and flyovers.
The Youth and Sports Minister, H E Salah bin Ghanem bin Nasser Al Ali, was welcomed at the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage on Thursday by the minister, H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kuwari.
Both ministers discussed restructuring of the Culture Ministry and ways to transfer the two key departments under the culture ministry, namely the departments of youth centres and youth activities, to the new ministry. The youth ministry will be headquartered in a tower in
Al Dafna. It was also discussed that the new ministry will need an undersecretary and two assistant undersecretaries.
The new Minister of Education and Higher Education H E Mohammed Abdul Wahed Ali Al Hammadi, visited the Supreme Education Council’s office in Al Dafna on Thursday.
He met senior officials of the ministry and discussed the ministry’s present and future plans.
The new Minister of Justice, H E Dr Hassan bin Lahdan Saqr Al Mohannadi, too paid a visit to his ministry’s headquarters and met the directors and department heads last Thursday.
Meanwhile, in an online survey conducted by Al Sharq on the performance of various ministries, a vast majority (95 percent) of respondents said the ministries should improve their performance.
Employees of public authorities and organisations are not trained enough to deal with the public, a respondent said, stressing the need for rigorous orientation and training.
Taking about public services, the respondent added that front-office staffers of public organisations behave rudely with people, both citizens and expatriates.
“People queue up waiting for their turn to come and the staffers are busy talking on the phone,” he said.
