Presided over by its Speaker Sheikh Dr. Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Al-Sheikh, the Shoura Council held an ordinary session to discuss annual reports of the Ministries of Defense, Health, Foreign Affairs, Economy and Planning and Higher Education. Following the meeting, Assistant Speaker of the Shura Council Dr. Fahhad bin Mu'tad Al-Hamad said the meeting discussed and passed a study to amend the armed forces personnel and officers payment system, aiming to achieve equality among the armed forces servicemen in comparison to the civil service personnel. A debate on the performance of the Ministry of Health in the fiscal year 1431-32 H., gave to rise many serious questions like the need to apply medical insurance on all Saudi nationals following expatriates suit in government and private sectors, the need to establish an internationally-renowned state-of-the-art national laboratory, the inefficiency of primary care clinics in urban neighborhoods, and the lack of advanced medical and health services in some parts of the Kingdom. The members opted to have further discussion of the issues. Discussing the annual report 1432-33 H. of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, some members rejected a strong proposal to expand the liabilities of the Ministry to cover the situation of unemployment and the existence of illegal migrants in the country, citing that this is the exclusive job of both the ministries of labor and interior. The report will have further review in a future session. --More
