Where are the partners of the former director of 'Social Security'?
The former Director General of the Public Institution for Social Security (PISS) died four years ago, but the money that passed through his hands continues to speak.
The last person to bring the case back into the spotlight was not a Kuwaiti judge, but the Swiss judiciary.
A prominent Swiss banker was convicted after it was established that he systematically and continuously paid approximately 82.3 million Swiss francs to the former Director General of PISS in exchange for directing approximately $595 million of social security funds to his bank and to investment funds linked to him.
The story did not stop at bribery; the case involved around 300 payments and 122 financial transfers worth nearly 77 million francs, which were used to obscure the criminal origin of the commissions, hinder their tracing, and prevent their confiscation.
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And this, significant as it is, is merely one window into a network that spanned years, countries, and financial institutions. What is revealed today raises a larger question about what remains outside the courts and the public eye.
But after everything we have learned, perhaps it is time to change the question.
Not: What did the former head of social security do? But: Where are his partners?
The man ran the Public Institution for Social Security from 1984 to 2012, a period of nearly 28 years. He was not running a private shop, but a public institution that invested billions of dinars, complete with departments, committees, officials, auditors, contracts, consultants, and parties receiving funds.
How could a corruption network of this magnitude, stretching across banks, asset managers, brokers, and states, appear to this day as the story of a single man?
Behind every investment, commission, or contract through which "social security" funds were disbursed, there was another party to the transaction.
This makes the question legitimate: Who benefited illegally from the former Director General’s system, how much did they receive, and in exchange for what?
Were all the services purchased by the institution at their true market value?
Were all the assets purchased worth what was paid for them?
Who sold?
Who brokered?
Who received commissions?
And who benefited from their relationship with the institution during those decades?
These are not accusations against anyone. Criminal liability cannot be built on suspicion. But these are questions that deserve to be asked, especially after foreign courts have proven that the former Director General was not alone, and that bankers and brokers paid bribes in exchange for directing social security funds.
Today, the moment seems more appropriate for raising them.
Last March, Dr. Rana Al-Faris was appointed head of the Public Authority for Combating Corruption ("Nazaha") for a four-year term, while the Authority itself confirms that its official directives are based on "rooting out corruption and drying up its sources."
At the same time, His Highness the Prime Minister, Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, has made completing the requirements of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and combating money laundering and terrorist financing a strategic priority, chairing repeated meetings over recent months for this purpose.
Thus, the government and "Nazaha" have an opportunity to turn these priorities into a practical test in one of the largest public finance files in Kuwait’s history.
No one who participated or benefited illegally should be shielded by the passage of time or by their name remaining out of the spotlight.
Holding those who corrupted yesterday accountable sends a message to anyone who might consider corruption tomorrow: Time does not erase responsibility, nor should it transform into immunity.
We do not need to put a dead man on trial again.
We need to know who was alive around him, who took from social security during the former Director General’s tenure, how much they took, and why.
