A legal case that accuses Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry of misusing public funds is progressing through a legal process within the State Council.
The case, prepared by lawyer Gamal Saleh, claims that Foreign Minister Shoukry has committed corruption in the establishment of a EGP 50m fund for Egyptian ambassadors abroad.
The money was ostensibly established to support ambassadors moving posts across the world. Saleh has called for Shoukry to be stripped of his diplomatic immunity and to be investigated before the Prosecutor General.
On Monday, an administrative court passed the case to the State Commissioners Authority to give a legal assessment on whether to proceed with the case.
Financial corruption by government departments recently came to the forefront, as the key body tasked with scrutinising the use of public funds faced numerous attacks. The head of the Central Auditing Organisation Hisham Geneina has spoken out against a presidential decree that allows the presidency to remove heads of independent government bodies like his own. Geneina has said that he believes that the decree follows his work in investigating the improper use of public funds by Justice Minister Ahmed Al-Zind.
An Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights’ (EIPR) report Monday says that the new decree, which allows for the presidency to remove heads of independent governmental bodies, “disarms” those bodies of the independence necessary to function effectively and expands the president’s power.
The CAO’s work has come to the forefront recently amid attacks from other branches of government, and the identification of billions of pounds of unaccounted public funds operated across different departments.
In July, the Democratic Coalition, consisting of eight liberal and leftist parties and political movements, such as Al-Dostour, Al-Karama, and the Popular Current, rejected the presidential decree and questioned the urgency for issuing such a decree before a parliament has been formed.
