Top councillor without desk!

By MOHAMMED AL A'ALI
A LEADING municipal councillor and two colleagues are still without their own desks, let alone offices, more than a month after being elected.
Manama Municipal Council technical committee chairman Abdulmajeed Al Sebea'a and councillors Sadiq Rahma and Khamees Al Rumaihi have had to shuffle from desk to desk.
Now Mr Al Sebea'a is refusing to use the council headquarters, saying there is no room for him.
He is operating out of his original office in a major engineering consulting firm and will soon rent his own office for council work.
Mr Al Sebea'a is attending general-secretariat, council and committee meetings at the council headquarters, then going back to his original workplace.
The chairman and his secretary and the secretary-general, have their own separate offices in the council premises.
There are two offices for clerks and one office with four tables, divided amongst the seven remaining councillors.
The council and the Municipalities and Agriculture Affairs Ministry are in one premises and the Manama Municipality is in a building adjacent to it.
"Can anyone imagine, the chairman of one of the council's four committees, without any table to sit at?" said Mr Al Sebea'a
"There are four tables in the office allocated to us, which is currently occupied by the three other committee chairmen and the council vice-chairman.
"Then people ask why I am not present at the council, why should I be?"
"I am willing to go to people's houses whenever they call me, or leave a message at the council. Other than that, staying in the council building at the moment is impossible.
"Whenever I want to send an urgent email, I am forced to ask one of the clerics to leave his seat, just to use his computer, which I feel is irritating them, considering they have work to finish."
Mr Al Sebea'a is now planning to open his own office in Mahooz within the next three weeks.
"I am planning to rent out a flat in a new building there, a place where residents would be able to find me, other than the council," he said
Mr Al Sebea'a said that the former Municipalities and Agriculture Affairs Minister and current Shura Council chairman Ali Al Saleh had agreed to give the council the ground floor of the building, which was later tendered for renovation and equipment.
But this has been stopped by the new Minister Mansoor Bin Rajab.
"I don't know the reason behind this decision, but the ministry is using a building that's not theirs in the first place, since the building has been the property of the Manama Municipality since 1919, when it was first formed," he said.
"The ministry has taken over the building and they should leave it and find somewhere else, but this is impossible in a country where things are being done illogically."
Mr Al Sebea'a said people were making fun of the council, because it was in the worst part of the complex.
"The part we are in is old and crumbling, while the part the ministry is in, looks like a bank," he said.
"A regular department head there has an office bigger than that of our chairman, which is really irritating me."
Expansion
Mr Al Sebea'a said that there were plans to extend the current municipality premises, where the council would be moved to.
"The eastern part of the municipality would be developed, but it would take no less than three years before completion and until then we are being forced to stay here," he said.
Council chairman Majeed Millad Al Jazeeri said that Mr Al Sebea'a was being pushed to the verge of quitting, but he was committed to serving the people.
"I have asked the council's secretary-general to install partitions in our meeting hall, so the three remaining councillors can use the space as offices, especially Mr Al Sebea'a, who also has a lot of committee work.
"That was before going to Haj last month, but days after returning I was hospitalised and I just resumed work last Thursday.
"I will follow up the case and I am really sorry for any inconvenience Mr Al Sebea'a has gone through," he said.
Mr Al Jazeeri said that the ministry had offered to find the council alternative premises, but it was studying the options.
"This building is registered under the municipality and not the ministry, they are the ones who should leave, not us," he said.
"They are planning to expand and they say we are stopping them, while we are planning to expand and we believe they are stopping us.
"Until an agreement is reached, we are staying."