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Sunday, 16 August 2026dailybeirut.com
Lebanon
The National Social Security Fund intensified oversight on registration and benefit claims, leading to the discovery of two companies registering 15 fictitious employees to fraudulently obtain social and health benefits. The general manager ordered immediate action to remove these fake records and initiate legal proceedings.
According to a statement from the Public Relations Directorate of the National Social Security Fund, "in the framework of strengthening supervision over registration processes and benefit utilization, specialized units within the Fund continue auditing institutional and employee files to detect violations, forgery, and fraud."
It stated, "In this context, based on the approach established by Fund General Manager Dr. Muhammad Karki, which emphasizes zero tolerance for any form of violation against insured individuals' rights and social security funds, investigations conducted by the Inspection and Oversight Directorate revealed that IMCO SECS and Al-Madina Mills registered 15 fictitious employees in their social security records without these individuals performing actual work, with the intent to fraudulently obtain health and social benefits."
"Therefore, the General Manager issued directives to remove the fictitious employees from social security records, take necessary steps to determine the value of benefits unlawfully received, and recover them according to regulations. Additionally, the Legal Affairs Department was tasked with taking appropriate legal actions, filing two criminal complaints before the Beirut Financial Public Prosecution against the two companies and their responsible officials (Bashir Aeid and Najeeb Mohammad Ali), as well as the 15 fictitious employees, on charges of forgery, fraud, unlawful benefit receipt, and misuse of public funds. The complaints were filed on 5/8/2026 under numbers 1577 and 1578."
It added, "In the same regulatory framework, but this time in the health sector, and as a continuation of measures taken against hospitals charging unjustified financial differences to insured patients, the General Manager issued new warnings targeting the following hospitals: Blouf Medical Hospital, San Louis, Al-Ayn and Al-Oon International, Al-Mashreq, Mount Lebanon, Tared, Al-Manla, and Dar El-Shifa."
It concluded, "Dr. Karki emphasized that he will not tolerate any individual, institution, or healthcare provider who dares to infringe upon the rights of insured persons, as his core mission revolves around protecting these rights and ensuring adequate social and health care for the majority of the Lebanese population."
