Before it holds plenary sessions on Wednesday and Thursday parliament was forced to respond to accusations that it had misspent an estimated LE18 million in public funds in one month. In a question directed to Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel-Aal on Sunday MP Anwar Al-Sadat asked “why LE18 million of parliament's 2015/2016 budget had been allocated to three cars?” Al-Sadat said the purchase was not part of parliament's original 2015/2016 budget but was “added later following approval from the National Investment Bank”. “Parliament is not in need of these hugely expensive cars and spending such an amount sends completely the wrong message at a time when the country is passing through severe austerity measures,” said Al-Sadat. “While the price per car was LE6 million — $680,000 when the dollar's exchange rate was LE8.8 — it is now LE13 million.” Al-Sadat admitted to being “seriously troubled” by such extravagance. “It comes at a time when the Egyptian state is suffering from a chronic hard currency shortage and is heavily borrowing from abroad under difficult terms,” said Al-Sadat. He wondered “how ordinary citizens will view the state's calls for austerity and economic reform measures when parliament is squandering money on luxury items with apparent indifference to public opinion.” Parliament's secretariat-general responded to Al-Sadat by issuing a statement on Monday in which it said the MPs' accusations “are completely groundless”. The statement said a request to buy 25 cars to serve the needs of the speaker, his two deputies and other senior officials was first issued in December 2015, one month before parliament was elected. “The request was issued by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Transitional Justice Magdi Al-Agati who at the time was legally responsible for running the affairs of parliament,” said the statement. “Article 51 of the House of Representatives' law states that if parliament is dissolved the prime minister or one of his deputies takes charge of running the financial and administrative affairs of the House.” “While preparations were under way for electing a new parliament the minister of state for parliamentary affairs — tasked by the prime minister with running the administrative and financial affairs of parliament — requested that a fleet of 25 cars, including a heavily armed one, be bought to be used by parliament's new speaker, his two deputies and senior staff.” The statement continued that in December 2015, upon the request of the minister of state for parliamentary affairs, the Ministry of Planning allocated an additional LE10 million to the parliamentary budget. “LE4 million of this sum was earmarked to buy the 25 cars and the remaining LE6 million was allocated to buy a car fitted with sophisticated security equipment to guard the speaker of the new parliament against security threats.” According to the statement, 17 of the allocated 25 cars have been bought and “the new cars include two Mercedes to be used by the speaker's two deputies.” It was the Ministry of Defence, revealed the statement, which took charge of buying the speaker's armed car which cost 393,000 euros. “When parliament was dissolved in 2012 the speaker's heavily armed car was sent to the cabinet to be used by the prime minister. This is why the Ministry of Planning approved in December 2015 a heavily armed car be purchased to replace the one given to the prime minister.” The statement also disclosed that because of the increased threat posed by terrorist groups in February 2016 it was decided that the two Mercedes allocated to the speaker's deputies be replaced by armed cars. “As a result the Ministry of Planning approved an additional LE16 million be added to parliament's budget so the Ministry of Defence could buy these two cars.” The vehicles have yet to be procured. The statement deplored that Al-Sadat had opted to make his accusations on TV channels without first contacting parliament's secretariat-general or seeking a response from the speaker. Anwar Esmat Al-Sadat, a nephew of late president Anwar Al-Sadat and head of the liberal Reform and Development Party, is expected to be investigated by parliament's Ethics Committee next week. Al-Sadat has been accused of distributing the original document of the government-drafted NGOs law to a number of foreign embassies without parliament's prior approval. Al-Sadat was dismissed as head of parliament's Human Rights Committee in September after being accused by some MPs of using his position to serve “a Western liberal agenda”. Attached to the secretariat's statement was a document showing that Al-Agati asked the Ministry of Planning in December 2015 — one month before parliament held its first plenary session — for LE10 million to be added to parliament's budget to buy an armed car to be used by the speaker.
