Procurement Risk:

Critical

Score:

11/100

Government Policy

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Q57 0/100

Does the country have legislation covering defence and security procurement with clauses specific to corruption risks, and are any items exempt from these laws?

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Legal framework Score: NS / 100
This sub-indicator is not assigned a score in the GDI. Kuwait has legislation that explicitly covers all defence and national security purchases and agreements…
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Corruption risks Score: 0 / 100
The country has no legislation covering defence and security procurement that makes reference to corruption risks.
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Effectiveness Score: 0 / 100
It is difficult to assess how thoroughly these laws are implemented because officials refused to speak about these deals, and defence contractors are also…
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Q58 25/100

Is the defence procurement cycle process, from assessment of needs, through contract implementation and sign-off, all the way to asset disposal, disclosed to the public?

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Formal procedures Score: 50 / 100
The defence procurement cycle is partially formalised. Contract implementation, sign-off and asset disposal are formalised but the assessment of needs is generally missing, officials…
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Transparency Score: 0 / 100
The public only has access to a total figure for the amount of money made off asset disposal from the Finance Ministry and the…
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Implementation Score: 25 / 100
Since the area is sensitive, it does not get much media attention and security officials declined to speak about the matter but there is…
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Q59 33/100

Are defence procurement oversight mechanisms in place and are these oversight mechanisms active and transparent?

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Independence Score: 25 / 100
Oversight mechanisms are formalised (6) but all auditors are subject to undue political interference by the Emir and his loyalists, officials and activists said…
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Effectiveness Score: 50 / 100
The oversight mechanisms are inconsistently active but they do demand witnesses and documents, activists said (1,2). Questioning goes nowhere, however. There appears to be…
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Transparency Score: 25 / 100
The oversight bodies including Parliament, do make some developments related to defence procurement public, but they do so inconsistently. Most of the news reports…
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Q60 0/100

Are potential defence purchases made public?

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Policies Score: 0 / 100
The Government does not announce potential defence purchases. The public only learns of them when an officials leaks the news to the press or…
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Notice of planned purchases Score: 0 / 100
There is no information available on forward plans.
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Q61 0/100

Are actual defence purchases made public?

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Comprehensiveness Score: 0 / 100
The Government does not announce defence purchases. The few incidents where purchases were in the public, as discussed above, only came to light because…
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Accessible data Score: 0 / 100
Data on defence purchases is never released.
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Capability Gap and Requirements Definition

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Q62 0/100

What procedures and standards are companies required to have – such as compliance programmes and business conduct programmes – in order to be able to bid for work for the Ministry of Defence or armed forces?

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Formal policies Score: 0 / 100
There are no publicly available procedures or policies which detail how the Government discriminates in its selection of suppliers and subcontractors. State auditors, who…
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Consistent implementation Score: NA / 100
This sub-indicator has been marked Not Applicable because it is unclear whether the security agencies have policies and laws that regulate how the Government…
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Q63 42/100

Are procurement requirements derived from a national defence and security strategy, and are procurement decisions well-audited? Are defence purchases based on clearly identified and quantified requirements?

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Procurement requirements Score: 25 / 100
Auditors say that internally the security agencies do attempt to tie their procurement decisions to their defence strategy (which is not available to the…
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Scrutiny Score: 50 / 100
Auditors have the right to scrutinise these processes but they are often not given the full facts, auditors said (1, 2 and 3). The…
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Purchases Score: 50 / 100
All purchases are tried to the country’s defence strategy but it is extremely vague, auditors said (1, 2 and 3). The absence of examples…
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Tender Solicitation, Assessment and Contract Award

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Q64 13/100

Is defence procurement generally conducted as open competition or is there a significant element of single-sourcing (that is, without competition)?

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Open competition Score: 0 / 100
According to SIPRI, 88 percent of Kuwait’s military purchases are from the US, which analysts and activists say suggests that these are not open…
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Scrutiny of single/restricted competition procedures Score: 25 / 100
Parliament and the SAB have the right to question defence and security officials on everything and anything but their questioning is made almost pointless…
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Q65 31/100

Are tender boards subject to regulations and codes of conduct and are their decisions subject to independent audit to ensure due process and fairness?

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Conflicts of interest Score: 100 / 100
The defence and security officials who authorise purchases are officers and they are subject to the code of conduct of the police and the…
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Audit Trail Score: 25 / 100
Despite the powers in law, it is almost impossible for auditors to access any information about most defence purchases and the ones that they…
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Transparency Score: 0 / 100
There is no information made available about the tender boards.
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Scrutiny Score: 0 / 100
The SAB often complains that it is sidelined by certain agencies and that some bodies even attempt to mislead them by giving them conflicting…
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Q66 0/100

Does the country have legislation in place to discourage and punish collusion between bidders for defence and security contracts?

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Legal framework Score: 0 / 100
Collusion between bidders is illegal in Kuwait in general, according to the PTA’s law (1). In fact, the whole tender process can be dissolved…
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Sanctions Score: NA / 100
This sub-indicator has been marked Not Applicable because it is unclear if there is such legislation that applies to the defence sector. There is…
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Enforcement Score: NA / 100
This sub-indicator has been marked Not Applicable because it is unclear if there is such legislation that applies to the defence sector.
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Training Score: 0 / 100
There is no evidence that training is provided to procurement officials with regards to collusion.
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Contract Delivery and In-Service Support

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Q67 13/100

Are there mechanisms and procedures that ensure that contractors meet their obligations on reporting and delivery?

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Reporting policies & procedures Score: 50 / 100
Auditors said that they are told that there are formal procedures that empower defence and security officials to track and assess the supplier’s service…
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Transparency Score: 0 / 100
The Government does not release any information about agreements or the delivery obligations of contractors beyond occassionally declaring what they have bought, and only…
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Monitoring Score: 0 / 100
It is unclear if defence and security officials follow through on the procedures they told auditors that they have, because they refuse to present…
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Enforcement Score: 0 / 100
It is unclear if defence and security officials follow through on the procedures they told auditors that they have because they refuse to present…
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Q68 0/100

Are there mechanisms in place to allow companies to complain about perceived malpractice in procurement, and are companies protected from discrimination when they use these mechanisms?

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Complaints mechanisms Score: 0 / 100
There are formal procedures in place for companies to complain, which include a court process and an internal complaint mechanism, but they are part…
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Effectiveness and Accessibility Score: NA / 100
This sub-indicator has been marked Not Applicable because there is no reliable information available to the public or auditors about the cost of complaint…
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Retaliation Score: NA / 100
This sub-indicator has been marked Not Applicable because there are no available facts on the matter since the only people with access to them…
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Q69 0/100

What sanctions are used to punish the corrupt activities of a supplier?

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Sanctions Score: 0 / 100
There is only clear legislation for punishment when it comes to offset programs and the purchases that don’t fall under “defence materials” by the…
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Undue influence Score: NA / 100
This sub-indicator has been marked Not Applicable because auditors, analysts and activists could not evaluate how the security agencies investigate and sanction contractors for…
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Application of sanctions Score: NA / 100
This sub-indicator has been marked Not Applicable because auditors, analysts and activists could not evaluate how the security agencies investigate and sanction contractors for…
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Offset Contracts

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Q70 25/100

When negotiating offset contracts, does the government specifically address corruption risk by imposing anti-corruption due diligence on contractors and third parties?

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Legal framework Score: 50 / 100
Offsets are permitted and managed by the Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion Authority (KDIPA). Any defence contract of the value greater or equal to KD3…
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Due diligence Score: 0 / 100
When negotiating offset contracts, the Government demands that the contractor identifies all risks related to the program and how they would deal with them…
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Q71 17/100

How does the government monitor offset contracts?

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Policies & procedures Score: 50 / 100
Tbe ‘Guidelines for Kuwait Offset Program’ [1] includes an ‘Offset Milestone Schedule’, which includes six stages from ‘Concept Paper stage’ to ‘Offset Fulfilment certificate’,…
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Transparency Score: 0 / 100
The KDIPA website does not include details about specific offset contracts [1]. The 2018 Annual Report makes mention of an existing 20 projects, and…
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Monitoring Score: 0 / 100
No details regarding completion reports could be found online. The security agencies refuse to give these reports, assuming they actually exist, to external auditors…
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Enforcement Score: NEI / 100
There is not enough information to score this indicator. According to the 2018 Annual Report, five obligors failed to make a decision on fulfilling…
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Q72 0/100

What level of competition are offset contracts subject to?

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Score: 0 / 100
There is no reason to believe that offset agreements (like all other defence agreements which are conducted in almost complete secrecy) are struck after…
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Agents / Brokers

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Q73 0/100

How strongly does the government control the company’s use of agents and intermediaries in the procurement cycle?

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Policies Score: 0 / 100
There appears to be no restrictions on the use of intermediaries and agents in the procurement cycle, and there appears to be no will…
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Enforcement Score: NA / 100
This sub-indicator has been marked Not Applicable because there appear to be no restrictions on the use of agents and intermediaries in the procurement…
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Financing Package

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Q74 0/100

Are the principal aspects of the financing package surrounding major arms deals, (such as payment timelines, interest rates, commercial loans or export credit agreements) made publicly available prior to the signing of contracts?

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Score: 0 / 100
No information about the financial packages are made public. Sometimes even the auditors and lawmakers fail to access this information, officials and activists said…
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Seller Influence

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Q75 NS/100

How common is it for defence acquisition decisions to be based on political influence by selling nations?

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Prevalence: selling nations Score: NS / 100
This is indicator is not assigned a score in the GDI. Virtually all defence decisions are driven by political influence and that is why…
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Justification Score: NS / 100
This is indicator is not assigned a score in the GDI. The Government does not justify military purchases by referring to its military needs…
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Prevalence: domestic pressures Score: NS / 100
This is indicator is not assigned a score in the GDI. Domestic politics do not influence these decisions mostly because local politicians do not…
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