The President of the Central Auditing Organization Gawdat el-Malt has set up a committee to review and examine decisions to provide citizens with state-financed medical treatment services, both inside and outside Egypt. The committee includes members of the Central Authority for Financial Control, which monitors the financial performance of ministries. The committee will immediately determine the number of cases where state-financed medical treatment has been provided and will also examine whether the hospitals used for the service were private or public, el-Malt said. He also instructed the committee to determine which groups and individuals are benefiting from such services and to which constituency they belong. The committee will also tabulate the number of completed cases, as well as those which have yet to be implemented. From this data, the committee will determine the total cost, the total amount owed by the Ministry of Health, how much the ministry previously paid to hospitals and public and private medical institutions, and the sum of outstanding payments as of 31 December 2009. The report will also include an analysis of cases where state-financed medical treatment is provided outside of Egypt, said el-Malt in statements to the press on Saturday. The total cost of treatment along with travel and accommodation expenses will be calculated, and the report should uncover any discrepancies, el-Malt added. The media have recently criticized the appropriation of state-financed medical treatments to Minister of Finance Youssef Boutrous-Ghali and other members of parliament who have allegedly used a disproportionate percentage of the funds for individuals within their constituencies. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
