The House Economic Committee has established four sub-committees mandated with monitoring and auditing state-controlled “private funds,” which have a total of EGP 52.7 bn in their coffers, Al Borsa reports. An unnamed source from the committee said the move aims to minimize the opportunities for corruption in the private funds, which have gained a less-than-stellar reputation of being a haven for graft. The establishment of the sub-committees comes after the Finance Ministry published a report on the funds, which found significant disparity between the salaries given to the funds’ employees and their counterparts in administrative bodies, according to El Watan. VetoGate also carried the ministry’s report in full.

Private funds — which are not part of the budget and which were formed with the intention of weaning some government bodies off the Finance Ministry — have gained the reputation for being slush funds and havens for corruption. The House Budget Committee said this fall that it would introduce legislation to place 25% of the present-day value of the private funds under the control of the Finance Ministry.