The People's Assembly and Shura Council have been swamped by a flurry of corruption charges. Gamal Essam El-Din sees which ones might stick The refusal of the People's Assembly to open investigations into the alleged mass and some believe ill-gotten wealth of former housing minister Mohamed Suleiman may have impeded any enquiry, but for how long? On Monday, 55 independent and opposition deputies of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) asked speaker of the People's Assembly Fathi Sorour to refer Suleiman to the prosecutor- general to be investigated on alleged charges of corruption. Article 339 of the assembly's internal statutes, the deputies said, provides it with the right to ask the prosecutor-general to investigate a corruption case under a request submitted by no less than 20 MPs. "In this case," deputies said in a statement, "we think Suleiman profiteered from his 13-year-old job as minister of housing [1993- 2006]." Although Suleiman joined the Ministry of Housing as a low-profile official, deputies believed he had become a multi-millionaire, possessing a number of palaces in Heliopolis, the North Coast's Marina and Ismailia's Fayed resort, not to mention millions of pounds in bank accounts. As a result, "it is more than necessary that the prosecutor- general opens a full investigation into the sources of Suleiman's wealth and determines its source," the statement added. However, the request was rejected by Sorour. Addressing the assembly on Tuesday, Sorour said Suleiman sent him a letter vehemently denying the charges levelled against him. "Suleiman's letter came with a dossier containing several documents certifying that he gained his wealth from legal sources," said Sorour. One of the documents, added Sorour, indicated Suleiman's wealth was thoroughly investigated by the Ministry of Justice's Illicit Gains Office (IGO) in 1998, 2000 and 2005. "In every period, the IGO's investigation concluded that Suleiman's wealth came from legal sources," said Sorour, declaring that the IGO's response was enough not to refer Suleiman to the prosecutor-general. Undeterred by Sorour and the IGO's response, the deputies, led by Alaaeddin Abdel-Moneim, independent MP for south Cairo's district of Al-Darb Al-Ahmar, lodged another request with the prosecutor-general. Abdel-Moneim, a former police officer and currently a lawyer, said the deputies' request was corroborated by a report issued by the Central Auditing Agency (CAA) on the performance of the Ministry of Housing in 2003/ 2004. "The report mentions a plethora of shady practices committed by Suleiman since he came to office in October 1993, leading to an enormous surge in his wealth for no justifiable reason," Abdel-Moneim told Al-Ahram Weekly. For the sake of transparency and fighting corruption, Abdel-Moneim said a large number of deputies agreed there should be a thorough investigation into Suleiman's wealth. Abdel-Moneim submitted another request with the prosecutor-general, asking him to open an investigation into alleged corruption against the former chairman of Banque Du Caire Ahmed El-Bardaei. Also drawing on a CAA report about the performance of the banking sector in 2003/2004, Abdel-Moneim cited that El-Bardaei granted several businessmen huge loans without adequate collateral in return. Allegations of corruption against Suleiman was not the only case that has kept the assembly busy. Two of the PA's business tycoon MPs, Emad El-Galada and Hani Sorour, are also facing corruption charges. El-Galada is being tried before Cairo's Criminal Court for giving a LE1 million bribe to several top officials in the General Organisation for Petroleum (GOP) in return for providing him with classified information about oil fields in Egypt. The Public Funds Prosecution-General this week began interrogating businessman Hani Sorour. Sorour, an owner of a medical equipment factory in the 10th of Ramadan industrial city, faces charge of supplying the Ministry of Health with substandard medical equipment and blood bags against which he secured a reportedly substantial sum of money. Initial investigations indicated that several Ministry of Health officials helped Sorour win several bid contracts to supply blood bags and secure profits for his company in return. Even though Suleiman, El-Galada and Sorour are deputies of the ruling NDP, the number of parliamentary businessmen getting caught in alleged corruption practices has increased. Amr Hashem Rabie, an analyst with Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies (CPSS), says that although the number of businessmen in parliament dropped from 77 in the outgoing 2000-2005 Assembly to 68 currently, the number of those implicated in corruption charges has increased. "It isn't strange that most of these are NDP members because they use their membership in the ruling party and parliament as a window to promote their businesses either legally or illegally," Hashem said. NDP leading officials, however, deny that membership in the ruling party gives an edge to businessmen. "The fact that three NDP businessmen are currently facing investigations is clear evidence that the ruling party is determined that none of its members is above the law," NDP's parliamentary spokesman Abdel-Ahad Gamaleddin told the Weekly. The consultative upper house of the Shura Council certainly made no exceptions to corruption cases when it met this week. On Monday, Prosecutor- General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud asked the council to strip Ibrahim Nafie, former board chairman and chief editor of Al-Ahram Press Foundation, and Samir Ragab, former chairman of Dar Al-Tahrir Press Organisation, of immunity so that they be investigated on the charge of tax evasion. Mahmoud said Nafie and Ragab had failed to pay the Finance Ministry taxes owed their press organisations for many years. The missing money has long been an issue between the Finance Ministry and state-owned press organisations. Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali said on Monday that all state-owned press organisations have been honouring their tax obligations since July 2005. "As for debts owed by these organisations prior to 2005, they are expected to be settled in the coming period," said Ghali. Ghali denied the Finance Ministry was pressing for the privatisation of national press organisations. "This is by no means true, especially since these organisations will soon be able to become financially independent and self-governed."
