The Administrative Control Authority (ACA) ordered on Sunday the arrest of several individuals including Menoufiya Governor Hisham Abdel Basset on charges of corruption. According to local media, the other detainees were two businesspersons.
The arrests took place hours before a visit by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, who inaugurated several projects on Monday in the city of Menoufiya.
In September 2017, Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF) estimated that nearly EGP 140m was wasted as a result of corruption during the month of August alone, including embezzlement, bribes, and squandering of public funds. The report additionally highlighted corruption incidents related to the Ministry of Finance.
The ACA has been actively trying to tackle corruption cases across various entities in Egypt. Among the incidents monitored in December 2016 was a corruption case related to the State Council, in which three officials in the purchasing department were arrested in possession of large sums of money and gold that they received as bribes. The report referred to the State Council officials’ case as “one of the biggest corruption cases in Egypt.”
In 2016, the ACA revealed a major corruption case that led to the ouster of the former minister of agriculture Salah Helal. The former minister and three other officials in the ministry were also arrested on charges of accepting bribes worth more than EGP 11m.
In August 2016, former minister of supply Khaled Hanafy resigned following a wheat supply corruption case involving other officials and silo owners. Hanafy resigned from his position following an investigation by parliament’s fact-finding committee into allegations of wheat supply fraud. He was accused of corruption and was charged with squandering up to EGP 500m of public funds and stealing financial subsidies from wheat farmers.
Earlier in September 2015, Helal was arrested in a corruption case which included other ministerial officials receiving bribes as “gifts” in exchange for a personal favour for a businessperson.
The favour pertained to issuing official documents concerning agricultural land of 2,500 feddans in Wadi El-Natrun. Helal was sentenced in April 2016 to 10 years in prison.
