Back to the complete issue
Thursday, 5 January 2017

House Economic Committee sets up sub-committees to monitor state slush funds

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.

Enterprise is a daily publication of Enterprise Ventures LLC, an Egyptian limited liability company (commercial register 83594), and a subsidiary of Inktank Communications. Summaries are intended for guidance only and are provided on an as-is basis; kindly refer to the source article in its original language prior to undertaking any action. Neither Enterprise Ventures nor its staff assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, whether in the form of summaries or analysis. © 2022 Enterprise Ventures LLC.

Enterprise is available without charge thanks to the generous support of HSBC Egypt (tax ID: 204-901-715), the leading corporate and retail lender in Egypt; EFG Hermes (tax ID: 200-178-385), the leading financial services corporation in frontier emerging markets; SODIC (tax ID: 212-168-002), a leading Egyptian real estate developer; SomaBay (tax ID: 204-903-300), our Red Sea holiday partner; Infinity (tax ID: 474-939-359), the ultimate way to power cities, industries, and homes directly from nature right here in Egypt; CIRA (tax ID: 200-069-608), the leading providers of K-12 and higher level education in Egypt; Orascom Construction (tax ID: 229-988-806), the leading construction and engineering company building infrastructure in Egypt and abroad; Moharram & Partners (tax ID: 616-112-459), the leading public policy and government affairs partner; Palm Hills Developments (tax ID: 432-737-014), a leading developer of commercial and residential properties; Mashreq (tax ID: 204-898-862), the MENA region’s leading homegrown personal and digital bank; Industrial Development Group (IDG) (tax ID:266-965-253), the leading builder of industrial parks in Egypt; Hassan Allam Properties (tax ID:  553-096-567), one of Egypt’s most prominent and leading builders; and Saleh, Barsoum & Abdel Aziz (tax ID: 220-002-827), the leading audit, tax and accounting firm in Egypt.