The façade of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) in Beirut, in September 2023. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient-Le Jour)
The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) announced on Wednesday that it filed a complaint with the financial prosecutor against a company it suspected of registering 25 fictitious employees, according to a statement saying the complaint was filed on May 7, “as part of the strict measures by NSSF Director General Mohammad Karaki to stop the actions of offending companies and combat fraud.”
“The NSSF filed a complaint with the financial prosecutor against al-Ghezlan International Trade SARL, its officials, and its fictitious employees for registering 25 fictitious employees” with the NSSF, the statement continues. Karaki also requested that this company and its fictitious employees be removed from NSSF lists and return the sums they collected.
The NSSF also states that it has taken “a series of strict measures and filed complaints against companies employing fictitious agents or having submitted false declarations to avoid paying their contributions or to receive compensation to which they were not entitled.”
A company named al-Ghezlan, based in Haret Hreik in the southern suburbs of Beirut, appears in online directories, but it is unclear whether it is the company in question. The company did not immediately respond to our inquiries.
Companies contribute to the NSSF for registered employees, who can then benefit from reimbursements for certain medical procedures and end-of-service indemnities. Since the start of the economic crisis in Lebanon in 2019, the coverage rate collapsed at the same pace as the Lebanese Lira against the dollar, then began to recover from 2022. By mid-April, the NSSF claimed that the coverage of drug prices and hospital rates had returned to their pre-crisis level, amounting to 80 percent and 90 percent, respectively.
