So has the government been selling public land to its supporters at knockdown prices? Gamal Essam El-Din listens to a host of parliamentary accusations targeting NDP businessmen Construction magnates and business tycoons belonging to the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) came under heavy parliamentary fire on Monday, five days after South Cairo's Criminal Court sentenced Hisham Talaat Mustafa, a construction mogul and prominent NDP member, to death after he was found guilty of hiring a former state security officer to kill the Lebanese pop singer Suzanne Tamim. Interpellations submitted by independent MPs Gamal Zahran and Farid Ismail accused property developers of profiteering from their membership of the ruling party. Both based their accusations on the 2007/2008 report by the Central Auditing Agency. The charges were refuted by Amin Abaza, the minister of agriculture who said that the government is taking all necessary measures to protect public interests, denying allegations of squandering public assets. Zahran, a professor of economics and political science at Suez University, accused the government of selling large plots of land to property developers members of the NDP. "Instead of developing this low-priced land for agriculture and food production, as they said they would, the NDP businessmen sold the land on, gaining astronomical profits," said Zahran. Zahran focussed on land supposedly earmarked for the Oweinat agricultural project. "In 1998," said Zahran, "the government decided to establish a new agricultural area in the desert in a bid to meet the food needs of Egypt's expanding population." The project aimed to reclaim as many 220,000 feddans in 10 years at a cost of LE3.5 billion. "Instead of entrusting reclamation to experienced agricultural companies," said Zahran, "the government opted to sell the 220,000 feddans to just 20 businessmen, most of them members of the NDP, at LE50 per feddan." According to Zahran, instead of reclaiming the land some businessmen then sold it to Arab Gulf investors from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates at a much higher price, while others then used the landholdings as collateral on millions of pounds worth of loans. The result, charges Zahran, is that the Oweinat project has turned into a fiasco. "After more than 10 years investors have reclaimed 46,000 feddans out of the targeted 220,000," Zahran said. Yet instead of confronting NDP investors and businessmen with their blatant profiteering, the government's response was to pump yet more public money in the discredited scheme, spending an additional LE41 million on a new road to service the Oweinat project. Zahran focussed his attacks mainly on Mohamed Abul-Enein, chairman of Cleopatra Group, a prominent NDP member and chairman of parliament's Industry Committee, accusing him of exercising his influence to gain land in Oweinat. "The government and ruling party helped him purchase the land at a knockdown price though as the head of a company producing ceramics he has nil experience in reclaiming land." Zahran argues that "it was illegal in the first place for the government to sell land to Abul-Enein as long as he was a member of parliament," pointing out that Article 95 of the constitution clearly states that during their membership of the People's Assembly parliamentary deputies are not allowed to conclude any business transactions with the government. Zahran characterised the Oweinat project as an "example of the current marriage between money and power in Egypt". MP Farid Ismail, a member of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, focussed on what he called "the plundering of land along the agricultural road between Cairo and Alexandria". While arable land along the road was increasingly given over to building and brick making -- he estimated that more than 1.2 million feddans had been lost in the last 10 years -- the government, Ismail said, had "decided to provide investors and businessmen with facilities to reclaim lands in the desert between Cairo and Alexandria to compensate for the land lost in the Delta". "While some investors went ahead and reclaimed the land for agricultural use others, mostly belonging to NDP, used the land to make quick profits, selling it to tourist companies and property developers." "Drive along the desert road and what do you see?" he asked. "Tourist resorts and luxury residential compounds, built instead of developing the land for agriculture and food production." Ismail accused NDP businessmen, senior state officials and police officers of using their influence to buy land on the desert road between Cairo and Alexandria at LE200 per feddan. "They then sold it on to developers at a vast profit. The developers in turn poured more than LE16 billion into building compounds that include artificial lakes, thousands of swimming pools and golf clubs." Ismail estimated that six billion cubic metres of water had been utilised, not to reclaim land but to provide the compounds with lavish facilities. Ismail also accused former housing minister Ibrahim Suleiman of providing NDP cronies, including Hisham Talaat Mustafa, with land on the desert road between Cairo and Suez and in 6 October governorate. "He sold them the land at just LE10 per metre to build low-cost housing for young people. Instead they opted to build compounds for the rich." Ismail also charged that the government had sold 650,000 feddans in the Red Sea resort of Taba at LE1.5 per metre. "The company which bought the discounted land may have been registered in Egypt but it was in essence Israeli," he said. Ismail accuses the government of divesting itself of public land that would have had a market value of LE1 trillion at knockdown prices. "This huge amount could have been spent on finding jobs for the unemployed or on social benefits for the poor rather than on building luxury resorts for the rich," he said. Minister Abaza defended the government's record on land reclamation. The switch to privatisation policies in the early 1990s, he argued, made it essential that the private sector became an active player in development projects. "The government does not spend on these giant projects. It was essential that the private sector play its role," he said. "The desert road linking Cairo with Alexandria has become a green haven full of farms and orchards as well as giant private agribusinesses that use sophisticated irrigation techniques and export produce to many Arab and European markets." Abaza also defended the Oweinat project, pointing out that its location, deep in the south of the country, made it costly for investors to reclaim the land. "This is why we sell the land at cheap prices, in order to encourage investors to move there," said Abaza. "Investors also meet the cost of infrastructure and facilities." "I agree that the implementation of the Oweinat project took a long time but the picture in this previously desolate area has changed completely. It now promises more food and exports," Abaza concluded.
