Hisham Geneina, head of the Central Auditing Agency (CAA), Egypt's main watchdog institution, has been sacked. President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi issued a decree late Monday dismissing Geneina and replacing him with former state security prosecutor Hisham Badawi. The decree was issued after Geneina was questioned by State Security prosecutors over an interview he gave in December in which he said corruption in government circles between 2012 and 2015 had cost Egypt LE600 billion in lost revenues. After questioning Geneina on Monday, State Security Prosecutor Tamer Fergani said Geneina's figures about corruption were inaccurate. “These claims could have compromised public peace and national security,” said Fergani. Geneina, who was appointed by former president Mohamed Morsi on 6 September 2012, has criticised state and government institutions on a number of occasions, accusing them of rampant corruption. State Security prosecutors issued a statement on Monday claiming that Geneina had deliberately misrepresented levels of corruption in contemporary Egypt by including violations that took place before 2012. They also claim that Geneina abused his position as top auditor to gather documents to press his case. The law on watchdog institutions (Law 89/2015), issued by presidential decree last year and later ratified by parliament, allows the president to dismiss the heads of watchdog institutions under four conditions: if there is strong evidence they have violated national security, if they have lost trust, if they abuse their position in a manner that is detrimental to the country's supreme interests, and if they become physically or mentally unfit to do their jobs. Alaa Abdel-Moneim, spokesperson of the pro-regime parliamentary bloc Support Egypt, told Al-Ahram Weekly that Geneina's dismissal was expected. “Many MPs believe the decision to sack him came late. He should have been dismissed from his position a long time ago,” he said. “President Al-Sisi decided to sack him only after State Security prosecutors directed official accusations at him — that he abused his position and issued statements that exposed the country's security and supreme interests to danger,” Abdel-Moneim added. The law on watchdog institutions, endorsed by parliament in January, allows the president to dismiss the heads of four regulatory institutions: the CAA, Central Bank of Egypt, General Authority on Financial Supervision and Administrative Control Authority. Al-Sisi came under pressure to investigate Geneina after he began issuing statements about the cost of corruption to Egypt. A fact-finding committee was formed, including financial and legal experts from the justice, planning, finance and interior ministries, to investigate Geneina's claims. The committee later issued a report that accused Geneina of inflating figures and deliberately tarnishing the image of the state. The committee said that Geneina's claims were “misleading, exaggerated and lacking credibility”. Geneina stood his ground following release of the report and insisted that he could provide documentary support for all his statements. “Geneina initially claimed his figures about corruption covered the period from 2012 to 2015,” said the committee. “But what we discovered is that his statements covered more than a decade.” When parliament met for the first time on 10 January many MPs demanded that a second committee be formed to investigate Geneina, and some called for him to be fired. MPs also criticised Prosecutor-General Nabil Sadek's imposition of a gag order on reports of the top auditor's figures about corruption in Egypt. Despite the prosecutor's media gag order, MPs voted in favour of allowing an ad hoc parliamentary committee to begin investigating Geneina's claims. Sadek responded by insisting that the gag order would remain in place until official investigations into the case were finished. Parliamentary speaker Ali Abdel-Aal intervened, arguing, “A parliamentary investigation should be postponed until after the prosecution has completed its own investigations.” Said independent MP Mustafa Bakri, “The dismissal of Geneina might lead to the disbanding of the parliamentary committee entrusted with investigating his corruption claims.” He continued, “But as long as prosecution authorities have accused Geneina of deliberately inflating figures on corruption he should be referred to trial.” MP Abdel-Rehim Ali supported Al-Sisi's dismissal of Genina. “Although it came too late, the decision was correct,” he said. Ali has asked Abdel-Aal to not cancel the parliamentary committee investigating Geneina's figures. “We have complete trust that prosecutors will do good job investigating Genina, but parliament is the country's main watchdog and must exercise its role in this case,” said Ali. Abdel-Moneim and Ali agree that any parliamentary investigation into Genina's claims should include the former head auditor's political background. MPs, like much of the press, accuse Geneina of acting on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood by attempting to mislead the public and discredit Al-Sisi. “Legal investigation into Geneina's claims should not prevent legislators from exercising their supervisory powers,” independent MP Adel Al-Sherif told Al-Ahram Weekly. Parliament has worked on several cases at the same time as investigations are being conducted by judicial authorities, he said. “In 2002, when a train to Upper Egypt caught fire leading to the death of more than 400 passengers, parliament opened its own investigation, even as the judicial authorities were examining the incident. There is no question of parallel investigations compromising the principle of the separation of powers.”
