NEWS FROM THE UAE
Source : The National

Worker paid Dh5m by mistake hands it back

AJMAN - FEB 04: When Hashim Mohammed went to withdraw half of his monthly salary from his local branch of the Arab Union Bank on Monday, to say he was in for a shock is to put it mildly.

Sitting in the Ajman Municipality worker’s account was not the Dh5,000 he earns every month. Instead, on the screen before him, another figure stared back – Dh5,196,000 (US$1.4 million).

Rather than taking the money and running, Mr Mohammed, 55, from Sudan, immediately reported the error, even though his family could do with a windfall.

As a token of thanks for his honesty, Mr Mohammed was presented with an extra month’s salary and a certificate of appreciation yesterday, at a ceremony presided over by Sheikh Rashid bin Humaid al Nuaimi, the chairman of the civic body.

Mr Mohammed, 55, an inspector for the public health department, said he had intended to withdraw Dh2,500.

“At first, I laughed because I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I inserted my ATM card again and inquired about the balance. It was Dh5,196,000. I immediately called the office HR and then the bank.

“I am a God-fearing person, I want to remain honest and have my family benefiting from only lawful income.”

The bank froze Mr Mohammed’s account for about a day to clear the excess money.

It turned out that he had been paid 1,000 times his monthly salary.

Mr Mohammed’s honesty in returning the fortune was particularly admirable given that he could not afford to pay university fees for his two sons in Sudan, which meant that they had to drop out of higher education.

The money put into his account would have been enough to keep both sons at university for more than 32 years.

One had studied at Ajman University of Technology but had to drop out after one year because Mr Mohammed, who has lived in the UAE for 20 years, could not continue paying the tuition.

His second son had been a medical student in Poland but was forced to return to Sudan because of money problems. He transferred to Khartoum’s New College of Medical Sciences for a year but dropped out of there for the same reason.

A spokesman for the municipality said the pay error was not its fault. “We are very proud to have such honest people like Hashim working with us,” the spokesman added.

Abdul Razak Saleh, a lawyer in Ajman, said it was wrong for the bank to close Mr Mohammed’s account for a day after learning of the mistake.

The proper procedure would have been for the bank to file a lawsuit against the owner of the account and get approval from the Central Bank to close it.

“Hashim was entitled to sue the bank and ask for compensation for all this inconvenience, but, being a good person, he chose to take it easy,” he said.

Arab Union Bank declined to comment.

 
 
New tactics in campaign to target chronic illnesses

DUBAI - FEB 04: The emirate will adopt innovative new tactics to fight chronic illnesses such as childhood obesity, diabetes and cancer, the man appointed to oversee health plans and strategies said yesterday.

Dr Essa Kazim, the Dubai Health Authority’s chief executive of health policy and strategy, said in an interview that the authority would start using direct intervention to improve the state of public health, and that the plans would affect almost everyone in the emirate in one way or another.

The DHA will also examine certain laws, and make recommendations on how they could be improved.

He said the authority would not release full details of the plan until it was clear exactly when and how it would be rolled out.

However, hinting at the types of programmes that may be on offer, he said the DHA would try to make sure more children take part in physical education and eat nutritious food at schools.

The DHA also wants fewer young people to start smoking, and generally get more adults to change their lifestyles, which he said was “one of the bigger challenges” the authority faces.

The UAE has one of the world’s highest rates of diabetes, and widespread childhood obesity, a leading cause of the condition, is a major concern. According to the United Nations, childhood obesity affects one in eight children in the UAE.

“Once [the plan] is finalised we will heavily involve the Knowledge and Human Development Authority for the introduction of this into schools,” he said, referring to the body that regulates the emirate’s schools.

“It would involve a change of lifestyle and these are difficult things for the public to accept; this would be one of the bigger challenges we face.”

He said it was crucial that any measures introduced focused on specific demographics.

“We will bring out strategies that target different age groups and different sections of the public, because there have been younger and younger people smoking. We have to tackle them all differently.”

The DHA also hopes to introduce a cancer registry that combines data from public and private institutions. This is necessary, Dr Kazim said, to address what he said was the growing incidences of the disease.

“We can’t say exactly what the burden of cancer is in numerical terms, because we have two registries in the UAE; one in Abu Dhabi and the other in Dubai,” he said. “The private sector does not input data, so we have incomplete statistics. If we want to know the true burden, we must have a unified registry.”

Under Dr Kazim’s wide remit, the policy and strategy department also plans to examine certain health laws to see if they could be improved, including the law that requires automatic deportation of expatriates with tuberculosis.

“We can look at the law to suggest what can be done and we would put forward suggestions as to how it could be implemented,” he said. “It is an issue which affects all the emirates.”

Dr Kazim’s department will also create new non-clinical and clinical guidelines for hospitals, clinics and individual practitioners that will standardise diagnosis, treatment, record-keeping and follow-up care.

Raising the quality of healthcare is the ultimate aim, and not one which can be achieved quickly, Dr Kazim said.

“There are a number of challenges,” he said. “What we don’t want to do is to break something that already exists and reinvent the whole thing. There is going to be, in general, better results if we use existing systems and improve on them rather than starting again.”

GCC adopts long-term plan

Priority will be given to fighting chronic diseases as part of the unified long-term health strategy in the Gulf region, the UAE Minister of Health said yesterday at the end of a two-day summit in the capital.
Dr Hanif Hassan said the plan will establish specialised centres to house donated blood, and set up factories to make vaccines, serums and medical devices.

Representatives at the 68th meeting of the GCC Health Ministers Session, held this week in Abu Dhabi, also decided to conduct research into the growing problem of antibiotic resistance, which is caused by the misuse of antibiotics and can lead to the emergence of so-called “superbugs”.

According to a statement released by the Ministry of Health, ministers stressed the need to “build and activate” an initiative from the World Health Organisation to create “patient safety-friendly hospitals”.
Infection control, including the H1N1 virus, was also addressed. Delegates agreed to create a five-year development plan for the Gulf on infection control.

The aim, he said, was to prevent more of the life-threatening diseases that have taken hold in the UAE by, for instance, working in school gyms and canteens, instead of just in hospitals and clinics.

Many more checks on prices in bid to head off inflation

UAE - Feb 04 :Checks on food prices have been stepped up to keep them under control as inflationary pressures return.

Officials have more than trebled the number of supermarkets they monitor to 40 while the basket of household goods that is tracked by the Ministry of Economy has been increased from 250 items to 650.

“We are covering more than 90 per cent of major retailers in the country to try to reduce prices for consumers,” said Dr Hashim al Naimi, the director of the consumer protection department of the Ministry of Economy.

The decision by officials to expand their efforts to keep a lid on prices comes as fears grow inflation may return to haunt Gulf economies following government stimulus measures aimed at stoking growth.

The surging cost of basic foodstuffs such as sugar has already led to warnings that the price of many drinks and sweets may rise this year.

Noureldin and Maryam Garnata, a couple from Algeria, said they had already noticed the price of basic goods creeping up. Yesterday, they were doing their weekly shopping in Carrefour on Airport Road in Abu Dhabi. “We have had to adjust our diet to the change in prices,” said Mr Garnata, an oil engineer, “I wonder how families of six or eight would be holding up?”

Khaled Abd al Atheem said the weekly food budget of Dh600 (US$163.35) for his wife and four children was now insufficient.

“Food takes a significant portion of my budget, and my salary is still the same,” said Mr al Atheem, an accountant from Egypt. “It’s not just one particular food item that has gone up, it’s across all foods.”

In an effort to keep the lid on food prices in the UAE and ensure sufficient supply, the prices of staples such as milk, sugar and bread have traditionally been monitored by the Ministry of Economy through inspection teams.

At the height of inflation in the country in 2008, the Government struck a deal with several major retailers, including Carrefour and LuLu, to cap prices until the end of the year at 2007 levels.

“We welcome this initiative by the Government to boost consumer confidence,” said a spokesman for LuLu. “We are already following the Ministry of Economy’s guidelines of pricing of our products.”

The results of the monitoring will be recorded and published weekly on the ministry’s website and in the media.

A traffic-light colour code system will help consumers to identify if prices have stayed the same, gone down or risen compared with the previous week.

Fines will be handed out to supermarkets that increase their prices beyond levels officials consider “reasonable”.

Inflation, rising prices for goods and services, could be a damaging side effect of a recovery from the global financial crisis, economists warn. Rising inflation can reduce the value of money, while concerns about future inflation can discourage foreign investment and consumer saving.

The UAE was beset with double-digit inflation before the financial crisis hit, with higher food and housing prices, together with surging oil prices dispersing wealth across the GCC.

A decline in oil markets and falling property values since last year helped relieve inflationary pressures across the region. The inflation rate in Abu Dhabi was 0.78 per cent last year, while in Dubai it was 4.06 per cent, government data showed. In a sign that these pressures could be starting to return to the UAE, data for November 2009, the latest monthly figures available, show consumer prices posted a slight gain, after four straight monthly falls.

Elsewhere in the region, rising demand for housing in Saudi Arabia is keeping inflation rates in the region’s biggest economy at four times historic averages, despite the global economic uncertainty.

Dewa offers relief to working mothers

DUBAI - Feb 04: For Ahlam Abu Zaid, the launch of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s first crèche means she can be closer to her son while saving money on childcare.

For three years, the working mother from Jordan has paid a private nursery Dh1,350 (US$370) a month to care for her three-year-old son, Mustafa, while she works at Dewa’s head office in Garhoud.

Now that Mustafa is one of 32 children attending the newly completed centre, which was inaugurated yesterday, her childcare costs will drop to Dh500 a month.

“Childcare is very expensive,” she said. “It was very good at the nursery we used. He learnt things there. But I am happier knowing he is near to my job.”

Dewa is the latest government organisation to open a nursery in response to a 2006 Cabinet decision that requires all departments with more than 50 female employees, or a female staff with more than 20 children below the age of four combined, to open such a centre on its premises.

Despite the 2006 decision, fewer than 20 government entities have established a nursery or are in the process of doing so.

Fatima Deemas, senior manager of the organisation’s employee relations department, said the Dewa centre might expand to enrol more children, depending on demand. The crèche is the first of several planned for other Dewa branches over the next two years.

Saeed al Tayer, managing director and chief executive of Dewa, said the centres were an important part of helping women to balance careers with motherhood.

“The main objective of the nursery is to provide a positive work environment to support working mothers and help them to achieve a balance between their professional and family life,” he said.

Ms Deemas said there were already several expectant mothers who had registered their unborn children on a waiting list for the centre.

Mothers are not allowed to visit their children during working hours, except in an emergency, but those who are breastfeeding would be called to do so during the day.