Chief-in-Editor  Prof. Badria A. Al-Awadi

The spread of financial and administrative corruption is considered one of the main obstacles hindering the development of countries and deterring the revival and progress of nations. Therefore, constitutions, local laws, charters, and international declarations have tended to set clear and strict provisions aimed to combat this imminent and continuing danger, reinforced by a detailed operational roadmap, as is the case in the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (CAC) adopted by the UN General Assembly on October 31, 2003, which was the outcome of an international legal effort that lasted for several years and resulted in the development of efficient and effective international legal and technical standards. This agreement covers five main areas: preventive measures, criminalization and law enforcement, international cooperation, asset recovery, technical assistance, and information exchange. It also addressed many different forms of corruption, such as bribery, abuse of influence, abuse of authority, and various acts of corruption in the private sector.

In light of historical and cumulative efforts in which local civil society organizations and constitutional institutions represented by Kuwait’s National Assembly and Audit Bureau, the State of Kuwait acceded to CAC under Law No. 47 of 2006, and accordingly established Kuwait Anticorruption Authority (Nazaha) by issuing Law No. 2 of 2016, which entrusted this Authority with several tasks and responsibilities, the most important of which are: “reinforcing the principle of transparency and integrity in economic and administrative transactions to ensure the rational management of state funds, resources and property, and the optimal use of them… and working to combat corruption, to ward off its risks and effects, to prosecute its perpetrators, to seize and recover funds and proceeds resulting from its practice in accordance with the law… and to protect state agencies from bribery, trading in influence and misuse of power to achieve private benefits and prevent mediation and nepotism”.

The law also entrusted the Authority with “developing a comprehensive national strategy for integrity, transparency and anti-corruption; preparing mechanisms, plans and programmes; implementing them, and following up their implementation with the concerned authorities,” in addition to other tasks, which comprise a serious and complex issue that requires the mobilization of various resources, through cooperation with government administrative agencies and civil society organizations that had been working in the same field for several years. These tasks also require the formation of an efficient, experienced, and effective administrative and executive body. 

Therefore, the Authority faced many obstacles and problems for fundamental reasons, some of which are related to the law of its establishment, the extent of its independence, and the powers granted to it; and other issues related to administrative, organizational and practical reasons, which is what jurists and experts referred to when the law was issued, and the formation of the Authority was announced.

In this context, the memorandum recently addressed by the Authority to the Council of Ministers, which was published in the local press at the beginning of November 2021, raises the problems facing the Authority and the obstacles that prevent countries from achieving their goals, which requires the initiative to correct the legal and administrative situation, and effective measures by The Council of Ministers, which, according to Article (123) of the Constitution, dominates the interests of the state, draws up the general policy of the government, monitors its implementation, and supervises the workflow in government departments.

The aforementioned memorandum includes two parts of the demands from the Council of Ministers, one of which is administrative and related to directing the administrative bodies (such as the Civil Service Commission, the Real Estate Registry and Documentation Department), and the various supervisory authorities to cooperate with it, exchange data, information and results of investigations, and activate the protection of whistle blowers stipulated in the law establishing the Kuwait Anticorruption Authority (paragraph 4 of Article 5), and the second is a legislative law which relates to the need for the Council of Ministers to rush to do what is necessary with the National Assembly to issue legislation ensuring the criminalization of bribery in the private sector and bribery of a foreign public official, as well as a legislation that ensures the expansion of the scope of responsibility of legal persons in corruption crimes, in addition to a new legislation to prevent cases of conflict of interest, after the first annulment by the Constitutional Court.

If there is no doubt that these proposed measures are due to enhance the role of  the authority in combating corruption, which constitutes one of the important practical social priorities of the state, yet what is required to activate the work of combating financial and administrative corruption is broader than that, and this includes  reviewing the legal status of the commission towards strengthening its independence and competencies, activating its legal and executive tools, and using it with qualified and experienced national administrative and legal cadres known for their integrity and transparency. This also includes cooperation with civil society organizations that have been working in the same field for some time, and cooperation with legal academic institutions, national media, and educational institutions to increase awareness of the values of transparency and integrity in the different sectors of society.