A row erupted in parliament yesterday over a new tourism bill, with some MPs accusing colleagues against the legislation of encouraging corruption and immorality.

It was put forward by the Islamist parliamentary bloc Al Asala, which wants to step up inspections of hotels and other tourism facilities to stamp out illicit activities.

However, the committee responsible for reviewing the proposal yesterday recommended throwing it out - provoking an angry response from its supporters.

Al Asala MP Abdulhaleem Murad said more inspectors were needed urgently and argued that a better rotation policy was required to reduce the chance of bribery.

'We have asked several times to increase the number of inspectors from six to 20 to monitor the country's 250 tourist facilities,” he said.

“The (Culture) Ministry is not following a circulation policy that will ensure inspectors are rotated amongst tourist facilities. Rotation is good every three months and it ensures better monitoring work that is not subject to corruption or temptation from investors in the tourist sector. Inspectors have been in the job for decades and this shows why many violations have been left unattended,' Murad added.

Last November, six tourism inspectors were among 17 people jailed for their part in a major hotel bribes scandal. They were handed 10-year jail sentences each and fines totalling BD16,596 ($44,138) for pocketing backhanders.

Ten hotel investors were also fined a combined total of BD49,550 ($131,782) by the High Criminal Court, which jailed six of them for seven years and the remaining four for three years.

A Moroccan woman, who accused the inspectors of blackmailing her into handing over hundreds of dinars every week to keep her club open, was also jailed for three years and fined BD2,400 ($6,383).

The proposed tourism bill was intended to prevent such abuses and Al Asala Bloc president MP Ghanim Al Buainain shouted that the service committee's recommendation to scrap it was more 'immoral' than acts committed in the tourism sector.

However, services committee chairman MP Adel Al Asoomi argued that problems in the sector would not be solved by the proposed legislation.

'We want the inspection work transferred to the Interior Ministry from the Culture Ministry,' he explained.

'By referring violations to vice squads, policemen can directly handle work. Policemen are more obedient and disciplined and this ensures that they can't be tempted with bribes or commissions.'

Meanwhile, Culture Minister Shaikha Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa denied there were any links between tourism and corruption.

'Linking tourism with corruption and immorality is unacceptable and mixing both is the wrong approach, because we as a ministry are promoting tourism and nothing else,' she said.

'Tourism is a beautiful image that we are trying to highlight in the country and it is unfair to put corruption and immorality as a part of what we do, because our work shows the opposite.

'I refute MPs' accusations and if they are not aware about what we do, then we are happy to explain everything whenever asked.'

After heated debate Al Asoomi referred the bill back to his committee for further study, along with another proposed law designed to protect historical and archeological sites based on a request from Shaikha Mai. – TradeArabia News Service