Effective supervision of aid funds is becoming increasingly important to donors and recipients alike. Sherine Nasr tracks upgraded efforts by various Egyptian agencies to guarantee that aid money is spent wisely and effectively When a country is a big receiver of foreign aid fund, it becomes crucial to know how to manage and supervise those funds. Of all Middle Eastern and North African countries, Egypt has the lion's share of EU's aid funds to the region. "Fortunately, it also has a good reputation in using assistance money," said Ambassador Gamal Bayoumi who underlined that Egypt has been recognised for the protective measures it takes to guarantee good supervision of aid funds. It is worth noting that bilateral allocations for Egypt under the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) are estimated at 568 million euros in the period between 2007-10. "In 2009, 140 million euros have been allocated to serve health [110 million], rural development [10 million] and twinning activities [20 million]," said Richard Weber, deputy director-general of the EuropeAid cooperation office, who added that the 149 million euros allocations for 2008 were directed to upgrade transportation sector, education, wastewater management, good governance, human rights and civil society. Notably, out of 12 billion euros of ENPI's aid fund allocated to some 150 countries between 2007 and 2013, some 8.3 billion euros go to southern Mediterranean countries alone with Egypt as the top beneficiary. The EU's main partner in Egypt is the Ministry of International Cooperation, "It refers to the programmes in need of finance according to priorities set by the Egyptian government," said Weber, who added that in addition to government organisations, other beneficiaries include business associations, youth's and women's organisations. But how to protect those funds and direct them to the right channels is perhaps the biggest challenge of major Egyptian governmental bodies. On top of which comes the Central Auditing Authority that reports on the closing accounts and issues periodical reports with remarks on official bodies' budgets. The Administrative Monitor Authority is another body which reports directly to the prime minister. The authority investigates some 35,000 complaints by citizens every year. However, a major step towards ensuring more transparency and sound practices was taken in 2007 when the cabinet approved the formation of the Transparency and Integrity Committee (TIC) with representatives from the political parties, civil society, academia and the media. "It is an effective channel for citizens to express their complaints and remarks. The TIC also provides a good means to make use of the highest political support to promote transparency and integrity in government practices," said Ashraf Abdel-Wahab, deputy to the minister of state for administrative development. Abdel-Wahab further underlines that Egypt has been successful in implementing the necessary tools and schemes to reduce interaction between service acquirer and service provider. On the bilateral level, an effective tool is to guarantee good coordination between national and international bodies responsible for management and control of public funds. "As the fight against fraud affecting EU external aid funds is one of our operational priorities, it is important for our investigators to build and maintain close contacts with the operational services in the countries where the money is spent," said Franz-Hermann Bruner, director-general of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), created by EU in 1991 to be in charge of investigating fraud, corruption and any other illegal activity affecting the financial interests of the European Community. In the issue of donations and aid fund, it may be difficult to perceive that the donor country is also a beneficial country. But that is true. According to Bayoumi, it is within the best interest of EU countries to build the capacity of their southern Mediterranean neighbours so that they may grow into more capable economic development partners. "Each euro that has been spent in Egypt in aid fund generated some 101 euros in return," he said. In 2008, Egypt's imports from EU were estimated at 14 billion euros as the EU continued to be Egypt's biggest trade partner. "Although Egypt's trade balance tips strongly towards the EU, it is more important to look at the volume of Egypt-EU foreign trade at large," said Bayoumi. So, does Egypt need more legislation or organisations to protect foreign aid funds? "Neither is required," said Abdel-Wahab. "Maybe more coordination and cooperation between different players is what we really need," added Abdel-Wahab who underlined that the civil society has to be more engaged and administrative procedures should be simplified. "It is time to track performance rather than expenditure procedures."
