Hesham Genena, head of the Central Auditing Organization (CAO) announced he will hold, beginning of January, a press conference to announce a number of corruption cases involving the country's institution. A bitter controversy started among employees of the state's watchdog agency over the expected press conference as the last one held by Genena had caused a large wave of attack and criticism of the agency in the media. Last February, Genena had referred more than 900 cases to the prosecutor general accusing major state institutions, including the interior ministry and judiciary, of wasting billions of dollars of public funds. His insistence on going public with these allegations led to two court cases against him, including one for insulting judges. CAO employees asked Genena to settle the matter by submitting the agency's reports to ministries and state institutions instead of going public, arguing that it would disrupt the agency's workflow and delay inspections of suspected employees, according to sources at CAO. The Central Auditing Organization is a state agency tasked with overseeing the government's finances to prevent graft by officials. In case of suspected graft, embezzlement or corrupt business deals, the agency sends a report to the government ministry where the violations are believed to be taking place.
