Commercial ads: Committee plans to widen probe areas

Manama: Aiming at broadening its areas of investigation, the Parliamentary Investigative Committee for commercial advertisements has sent a written request to Parliament  Chairman Ahmed Al Mulla to remove the word “commercial” from its name.

Of late, the Committee has decided not to confine its investigations to the commercial advertisements alone.

Chairman of the Investigative Committee Jamal Buhassan yesterday said that the Committee would enlarge its scope to investigate all sorts of advertisements. 

The Investigative Committee was formed following complaints from Bahraini companies against the transparency of the billboards advertising contracts systems. The companies alleged that the process of awarding the commercial advertisements was not transparent and foreign companies were preferred over local companies.

Buhassan said the Committee had invited the BCCI Chairman or Vice Chairman in the last meeting. “But they could not turn up owing to certain valid reasons. Instead they sent the GM legal committee with whom they had a meeting,” he informed.

He said that they had asked the BCCI officials to attend the meeting next time. “We have advised them to defend the interests of Bahraini businessmen and investors as they are the backbone of the economy.”

The Committee had received a general list of companies from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. “We have asked them to send the list of companies in the specific field. Hopefully, we would receive the revised list soon,” Buhassan explained.

Earlier, the Committee had complained that Ministry of Works was not fully cooperating in the process of investigations.

 According to Buhassan, Bahraini companies needed support from the government institutions. “But the foreign companies are being awarded commercial advertising contracts at the cost of Bahraini companies. This policy is not going to benefit the country and its economy,” he noted.

Earlier, MP and member of the Committee Nasser Al Qaseer had queried that “why only one foreign company is always getting tender while there are 1,300 companies in the country that are doing the same job?”

 The Committee comprises of Chairman Jamal Buhassan, Deputy Chairman Khalifa Al Ghanem, MPs Jamal Dawood, Abdulrahman Buali, Majed Al Majed, Osama Alkhaja, Nasser Al Qasseer, Ali Al Moqla, Mohammed Milad and Roua Al Hayki.