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AMMAN — Chairman of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff Gen.

Mashal Al Zaben and HRH Prince Feisal on Tuesday checked on the final preparations for the Special Operations Forces Exhibition and Conference (SOFEX).

Zaben and Prince Feisal, who is SOFEX chairman, toured the various pavilions of the exhibition and were briefed on the latest arrangements for the opening, slated for May 6.

AMMAN — Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh on Tuesday met with Rheil Gharaibeh, founder and general coordinator of the National Initiative for Building (Zamzam), and discussed the chamber’s monitoring and legislative role over national issues.

During the meeting, Tarawneh voiced the Lower House’s willingness to exchange views with all segments of society over all national matters.

Tarawneh added that parliamentary coalitions will meet with Zamzam leaders to arrive at common reform-oriented grounds.

AMMAN — Traders on Tuesday expressed concern over the disruption at shopping centres caused by the frequent and unorganised inspection campaigns carried out by several monitoring agencies.

Foodstuff Traders Association (FTA) President Samer Jawabreh called on monitoring institutions to refrain from imposing “unfair” closure penalties on commercial centres and to allow a grace period for traders to rectify their status.

Following an FTA meeting with shopping mall representatives on Tuesday, Jawabreh also called on the monitoring agencies to provide guidance for traders on self-monitoring mechanisms, according to a FTA statement.

AMMAN — Nineteen people died and two were injured in drowning accidents in the first three months of this year, according to figures released by the Civil Defence Department (CDD) on Tuesday.

The majority of incidents involved people swimming in prohibited areas such as dams, agricultural ponds and canals, the CDD said, urging families not to allow children to approach bodies of water unattended.

Parents should also avoid making random rescue attempts that could endanger more than one person, the CDD added.

AMMAN — Libyan Prime Minister-designate Abdullah Al Thinni has said that Libyan authorities were in contact with the kidnappers of Jordanian Ambassador Fawaz Aitan and had proof that he was in good health.

Meanwhile, officials in Amman and Tripoli rejected as baseless statements by a Libyan activist alleging that the Jordanian and Libyan governments had been discussing a deal to transfer Libyan prisoner Mohammad Dersi to his country, even before the abduction of Aitan.

In an interview with the Libya-based Al Naba Satellite Channel late Monday, which was also reported by the official Libyan news agency, LANA, the Libyan premier said that there have been ongoing communications with the kidnappers and Aitan, along with two Tunisian diplomats.

“We saw a video proving they are safe and sound,” he said, stressing that the three men “will be released”, without giving further details on the identity of kidnappers or their demands. 

Reports have said that the armed group that abducted the envoy on April 15 demanded the release of Dersi, who is sentenced to life imprisonment in Jordan for plotting to carry out a bombing attack against Queen Alia International Airport in 2006. 

LANA on Monday reported that Sahar Banoon, head of the Libyan Prisoners Abroad Committee, said that there had been talks between the two countries to transfer Dersi back home even before the abduction of Aitan.

She also added that Jordanian authorities showed interest in the deal in order to release Aitan.

“We have no comment on this,” said Ministry of Foreign Affair’s Spokesperson Sabah Rafie, without giving further details.

Said Lassoued, the Libyan foreign ministry’s spokesperson, also declined to comment on the issue, saying that he had nothing to add to Thinni’s statements. 

Despite the several attempts by The Jordan Times to contact Banoon, she was not available for comment.

ISTANBUL — HRH Princess Sumaya, chairperson of the Princess Sumaya University for Technology board of trustees, on Tuesday said the main challenges facing humanity pertain to climate change and the depletion of resources.

Delivering a speech on behalf of HRH Prince Hassan at the close of the First Turkish Arab Congress on Higher Education in Istanbul, she said universities should work in cooperation with local communities to tackle current challenges.

Organised by Istanbul University, the conference focused on challenges facing higher education and the importance of boosting Arab-Turkish cooperation.

AMMAN — Anti-Narcotics Department personnel destroyed around five tonnes of hashish seized over the past six months in a cement factory on Monday.

The drugs were incinerated in temperatures reaching 1000°C.

The factory is equipped with special high sensitivity filters that block any harmful material from polluting the environment.

AMMAN — The ILO and Jordan’s National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) on Tuesday endorsed an action plan to ensure the long-term sustainability of efforts to promote the principle of equal pay for work of equal value.

As part of the plan, three workshops will be held in different regions of Jordan over the course of 2014 to increase awareness of pay equity amongst the public, policy makers and community leaders at governorate level, as well as lobby for relevant amendments to the Labour Code. The plan also includes a media campaign, in-depth research on gender discrimination in the workplace and a pilot programme on a gender-sensitive human resource system in a private school. 

“Pay equity is one of the core principles of human rights at work, which we are committed to,” said Hamada Abu Nijmeh, secretary general of the Labour Ministry and co-chairperson of the NCPE. “But this commitment has to be reflected through legislation with clearly defined provisions which are in harmony with reality. At the same time, there has to be practical implementation on the ground through raising awareness of employers and workers in specific, and society in general.’’

In 2011, the Labour Ministry and the Jordanian National Commission for Women (JNCW) joined forces with the ILO to launch the NCPE. Since then, the committee has grown to include trade unions, professional associations, employers, civil society groups, women’s research centres, members of Parliament and the dedicated media.

“The committee has accomplished many achievements such as bringing together all relevant parties involved,” said Asma Khader, secretary general of the JNCW and co-chairperson of the NCPE. 

“It has brought the issue to the attention of ministries, particularly the Ministry of Labour, parliamentarians and the public. But it has also put the issue of pay equity at the top of the national agenda in order to adequately deal with women’s issues,” she said, adding that the NCPE should also work to empower women economically by bolstering their role in the labour market. 

“Empowering the economy is something that should be done through women,” Khader noted.  

In May 2013, the NCPE and the ILO released a comprehensive legal review that recommended legal amendments to promote equal remuneration for all workers in line with international standards, including the ILO’s Equal Remuneration Convention. 

The committee has also produced research on pay discrimitation in private schools which outlined the stark gender pay gap in Jordan and concluded that the country’s current legal framework lacks provisions to encourage women to join the labour market or promote equality in the workplace.

“The committee looked at how pay equity commissions in different countries operate with the view to learn from good practices and reflect on the best options for Jordan to ensure the sustainability of this work,” ILO Senior Specialist on Gender Equality Emanuela Pozzan said, in reference to the action plan.

The NCPE and the ILO have held numerous meetings with MPs and Labour Ministry representatives to discuss pay equity amendments to the country’s legal framework, with particular focus on equal remuneration.

AMMAN — Teams from the Ministry of Public Sector Development have conducted around 41 unannounced field visits to government agencies since being assigned by the Cabinet in late 2012 to assess public services and submit periodic reports to the premier.

In a statement sent to The Jordan Times, Public Sector Development Minister Khleef Al Khawaldeh was quoted as saying that the teams made field observations of public services at these agencies and submitted reports to the prime minister and concerned ministers.

Key observations listed in the reports focused on the lack of attention to complaints and suggestion boxes, the absence of clearly stated procedures for obtaining services, the inability to identify employees and distinguish them from customers, and the lack of clearly defined roles for certain directorates and offices of some agencies.

The field visits covered the Greater Amman Municipality Court, the Social Security Corporation, the National Aid Fund, the Department of Land and Survey and the Civil Status and Passports Department, among other public service offices and departments in various governorates, the statement said.

The teams also noted that customer service offices are “not adequately effective”, and some government agencies neither use signs to identify them, nor have brochures that describe the provided services.

“The reports further indicated that some employees lacked professional courtesy in dealing with customers and many offices lacked tidiness, with announcements hung randomly on walls and windows, and stationery and files stacked on some desks,” the statement said.

“Some agencies do not have a clear mechanism for organising interaction with customers, or clearly stated service delivery standards on location,” the statement added, citing team reports.

The service description cards at some agencies “fail to meet the intended purpose and while some of the displayed information signs explain what documents are needed from customers, they do not indicate the time frame or procedures for obtaining a service”.

The authority delegated to some office managers is insufficient, the reports said, adding that some employees prepare food and drinks in front of customers. 

“The assessment teams also noticed a large number of real estate agents offering their services to customers at some of the visited agencies, as well as many clerks obstructing customers’ movement,” the ministry statement said. 

“Some of the visited offices also lacked photocopiers and had too few seats to accommodate the large number of customers,” it added, noting that the teams “did not notice any intervention from line managers at many agencies to organise the service delivery process”. 

Archives and files at some agencies were also not handled in a secure manner, the statement said.

Managers at some of the agencies covered by the field visits are “hesitant to use the authority given to them to simplify procedures for customers”. 

“At the visited hospitals and medical centres, the report mentioned that cars park right outside the main entrance of the medical centres and emergency departments, causing chaos and congestion,” the statement said. 

Many administrative staff members “are frequently out of office”, the reports said, adding that “these departments are generally overcrowded with too many janitors and security guards”.

“Some service-delivery employees are often away from their desks, and others only drink coffee and chat with their colleagues without paying attention to customers, prolonging their waiting time and leading to long queues at service windows,” the reports said.

The Public Sector Development Ministry’s assessment methodology focuses mainly on “the service delivery approach, employees’ conduct and timeliness, and the management’s commitment to the proper treatment of customers, service delivery standards and addressing any difficulties facing customers”.

The goal of this project is to transfer the assessment process from the office to the field by carrying out direct surveys of services and service delivery procedures on location to identify weaknesses and communicate directly with customers to obtain their feedback, the statement said.

AMMAN — HH Prince Zeid, Jordan’s permanent representative to the UN, has submitted his resignation, a Foreign Ministry official said on Tuesday.

Sabah Al Rafie, the ministry’s spokesperson, told The Jordan Times that Prince Zeid will leave his post by the end of June “upon his request”.

She did not elaborate on the reason for his resignation or name any possible replacements.

Local news website Ammon News quoted unnamed sources as saying that the prince resigned over “health reasons”.

The prince — who attended school in Jordan, the UK and the US — earned his bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University in the US and a PhD from Cambridge University in Britain.

Starting his career as an officer in the Jordan Armed Forces, Prince Zeid served as a political affairs officer in the UN peacekeeping mission in the former Yugoslavia from 1994-96, which led to a decade of work on UN peacekeeping issues.

In 1996, he was appointed as Jordan’s deputy UN ambassador and became the first diplomat to publicly demand a UN report on the 1995 massacre of thousands of Muslims in Srebrenica.

In mid-2004, following allegations of widespread abuse by UN peacekeepers, he was appointed as the UN secretary general’s adviser on sexual exploitation and abuse.

In early 2005, Prince Zeid produced a report — subsequently endorsed by world leaders at the September 2005 millennium summit — outlining a strategy to eliminate sexual exploitation and abuse in UN peacekeeping operations.

From 2007-10 he served as Jordan’s ambassador to the United States. An expert in the field of international justice, the prince played a central role in the establishment of the International Criminal Court, the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal. In September 2002, he was elected the first president of its governing body.

Prince Zeid, who has been the country’s permanent representative at the UN since 2000, was one of five candidates for the post of UN secretary general in 2006 to succeed Kofi Annan.