Kuwait Anti-Corruption Commission Annulled and New Bill to Re-Establish It

Kuwait - Monday, December 21, 2015

The Council of Ministers in Kuwait approved a new anti-corruption bill and transferred it to the Emir, on an urgency basis, in preparation for its submission to the National Assembly, in an attempt to fill the void created by the Constitutional Court’s decision to annul Decree Law No. 24 for 2012, which established the “Kuwait Anti-Corruption Commission”. The Court based its decision, issued on Sunday, on a procedural defect without referring to the substance of the Law. It ruled that the commission which was established by a decree of urgency in 2013 after the first annulment of the National Assembly in 2013 to be unconstitutional, based on the lack of state of urgency provided for by Article 71 of the Constitution, which gives the Emir of Kuwait the right to issue decrees of urgency in the absence of the Assembly.

The new Bill establishes a new body to strengthen transparency, integrity and anti-corruption in economic and administrative transactions, and contains provisions on its management structure and powers, in addition to provisions on corruption offenses and related enforcement procedures, as well as on the protection of whistleblowers, their compensation and related incentives, and the disclosure of assets and the persons required to disclose.

Observers find that the new Bill maintains most of the gains that were adopted by the annulled Decree Law, but that it inappropriately changes the categories of persons required to disclose, and limits the powers of the commission, namely to request information and data from concerned bodies. An unofficial version of the Bill in Arabic can be found on: http://m.aljarida.com/pages/news_more/2012789032 .