MPs allegedly involved in issuing free medical care decrees for the benefit of family and friends deny any wrongdoing, reports Reem Leila Poor patients struggle to obtain free medical care decrees while a handful of MPs have abused the whole system. Such is the impression given by the continuous coverage of the scandal of state-funded medical care involving, till now, 14 MPs. Independent MP Mustafa Bakri is busy submitting documents to the prosecutor-general which, he says, implicate Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and Minister of Finance Youssef Boutros Ghali in the medical treatment scandal. On 19 September Bakri handed 24 documents, including bank transfers, cheques and withdrawal statements from the Central Bank of Egypt, to the general prosecution which he says detail violations committed by Nazif and Ghali. Bakri told Al-Ahram Weekly that the documents show Ghali received LE3.5 million to fund eye surgery in the US. The sum covered plane tickets and accommodation costs in the US, Britain and France for three months. Ghali was accompanied by his wife, who was put up at luxury hotels. The MP has also called on Prosecutor- General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud to question one of the prime minister's counselors, Mohamed Zein El-Abidine, who issued free medical care decrees worth LE160,000 for his two children and grandchildren. According to Bakri, Nazif, Ghali and Zein El-Abidine have violated Presidential Decree 691/1975. "This decree provides free medical treatment abroad only to those who cannot afford it and who cannot find equivalent medical treatment in Egypt. I have submitted documents proving their involvement in this scandal," Bakri said. Twelve MPs and two Shura Council members are currently being investigated, among them independent MP Omran Megahed and Muslim Brotherhood member Sayed El-Shoura. Megahed told the Weekly that his questioning began on 15 September and is continuing. "I did not violate any law and next week I will submit documents proving my innocence. If I wanted to secure illicit gains I would have stolen state land as many others have," says Megahed. Hundreds of Megahed's constituents from Al-Zarqa in Damietta have formed a Facebook group to support their MP. The homepage of the group describes Megahed as "a deputy of the poor people". "All the free medical care decrees I secured were for needy patients who benefited from them at public hospitals. None of them involved treatment at a private hospital," says Megahed. The MP has accused Bakri of being behind the suspension of free medical care decrees. "He has harmed millions of poor patients in dire need of this service for no clear reason and without any credible proof," says Megahed. "In recent years I have helped more than 6,000 residents of Damietta take Interferon, expensive shots for Hepatitis Virus C, at a cost of LE180 million. I have all the documents proving this. I was just the postman, taking requests from people and submitting them to the health minister," says Megahed. El-Shoura, who has not yet been summoned for questioning, denies that he exploited the medical care programme. He claims not to have known that there was a ceiling for decrees issued for free medical care, and believes Health Minister Hatem El-Gabali is responsible for the allegations directed at him. "It began last year, when El-Gabali became upset with me when I criticised him for excluding university hospitals from the system of free medical care. I have submitted several interpellations on the matter which he has failed to answer," says El-Shoura. "When the case against me comes to an end I will file my own complaints against those who have sought to implicate me in this scan
