On this day last year and at the same place, I wrote about the battle between head of the Central Auditing Organization (CAO) Gawdat al-Malt and Minister of Finance Youssef Boutros Ghali while discussing the CAO comments on the final account of the State budget for the year 2006/2007 before the People's Assembly (parliament). The same scene repeats itself this year, but with some minor changes. Al-Malt faces the government with what he called "political crimes" and Chairman of the People's Assembly's Committee on Planning and Budget Ahmed Ezz contains the situation by saying "the problems should be secretly solved among us"! It is the same corruption and terrible figures that show the waste of the public funds: (the value of arrears and government dues amounted to LE101 billion in June 30, 2008). To simply understand these figures we should know that the "State failed to collect LE30.7-billion taxes from the top financiers, LE5.2-billion customs arrears and LE2.3-billion sales tax". .. Why?
This is because the "political corruption" is stronger than an "employee" without immunity facing "the leaders of the ruling party" or because the corruption has arms and servants in the bodies responsible for collecting the domestic debt. This is normal in an atmosphere of poverty, which deprives people of their most cherished thing they have, namely "honor". It is also normal to know that the government and the ministries do not pay their debts, for example: (the arrears of legal fees and fines reached LE6.4 billion).
Al-Malt said: "there are excesses in more than 30 ministries" and called on the parliament to bring the government to book due to its mistakes! They are the same men who establish the state's policies, change laws and amend the Constitution! They are the same men, who share the ruling in public at the ministry and secretly behind the scenes. However, the simple citizens, prima facie, pay the cost of these mistakes (the per capita domestic debt reached LE8527)! Only one of those figures takes you to the hornet's nest and teaches you the magic rule: (I do not see or hear or speak), but the CAO records, analyzes and publishes these figures. In accordance with the law and the Constitution, the CAO is the organ of the parliament.
The CAO is not an accounting body to publish the names of the senior financiers, for example, or to take legal actions (the seizure and selling of property to get the State's rights)! Al-Malt is not required to leave his "government" post to chase the giant of corruption! Collecting the government's rights is the mission of the Ministry of Finance and the "accountability" is the mission of the Public Prosecutor. Both the Ministry of Finance and the Public Prosecutor are represented in the parliament. Strangely enough, the "ministers" are appointed or elected members in the parliament and senior financiers! Senior financiers might "monopolize" sensitive posts vital industries!
Ahmed Ezz considers the "press institutions" and the Railway Authority as tools of pressure. This is because the former might expose the government's negative aspects and the latter exposes the government's inability to provide the simplest basic services. The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) governments are controlled by the mechanism of "arm-twisting": (government projects have been designed to waste the public fund, which is in the "pockets" of some businessmen in the form of "lands and bank accounts". See you next year.
