Counselor Gowdat el-Malt, chairman of the Central Auditing Organization (CAO), is due to submit the final account of the 2007/2008 to the People's Assembly. The session is expected to be attended by many ministers, as Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali and Economic Development Minister Osman Mohamed Osman will respond to Mr. el-Malt. Therefore, a new confrontation is expected between el-Malt and Ghali at the Assembly. According to the CAO report on the State Administrative Body's budget and the outcome of privatization, LE 672.5 million were collected (LE 9,327.5 or 93.3% less than the estimated LE 10 billion). During the past fiscal year, LE 9,962 million were collected. According to the report, more was spent to structure public business sector companies. The report, though, does not clarify the results of that spending or its benefits. It also shows that some LE 20.2 billion were spent on structuring companies until 30/06/2007, while some LE 8.2 billion were collected through the sales of business sector companies alone – according to the public treasury – from the start of the privatization program until June 30, 2007. In other words, the cost of structuring these companies was higher by LE 12 billion than the money collected by selling them. The report adds that the management of the fund for the structuring of these companies deducted - without being entitled to - some LE242.8 million of dues payable by the Holding Company for Trade to the Ministry of Finance. It also affirms that the share of the Ministry of Finance in the sale of Omar Effendi companies was unjustifiably reduced by LE 10.129 million. This money was spent as bonuses to the company workers when it was sold, while these sales and the dues payable by the Holding Company since the start of the privatization program were recorded in no book. This has prevented the Ministry from following up on those dues.
