Dr. Ahmed Darwish, Minister of State for Administrative Development, said the government and the private sector should admit that there is corruption in Egypt so that it could be addressed. At a conference on the relations between small and medium businesses and the government, Darwish said that hiding the problem would not solve it, pointing out that combating corruption has been on the government's agenda for more than 4 years. He said the ministry agreed with Cairo University to prepare a study on the values of the Egyptian society. "While it is a religious society, it separates faith from practice. People take bribes and later go to pray," he said, noting that things were better in the 1950s though income was lower. He said the government is moving towards transparency of governance in the context of a comprehensive program for reforming its administrative machinery. And he called on civil society to monitor the anti-corruption efforts. He added that transparency needs legislative amendments, the most important of which is a law governing the right for all to access information. Dr. Abdel Moneim Saeed, Chairman of Al-Ahram, said: "Nothing is above discussion, even if it had to do with corruption and transparency in Egypt. And we must make studies and search for solutions within a legal and institutional framework."
