Some ministry advisers in Egypt earn larger salaries than US President Barack Obama, says Ahmed el-Naggar, economy expert at the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. "Obama makes US$40,000 a month," el-Naggar said at a symposium held at Alexandria University on Tuesday. "Yet he's a poor man compared to some of Egypt's ministerial advisers, who make more than LE250,000 a month for services they don't even deliver." El-Naggar went on to point out that these salaries were funded largely by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). "This at a time when there are 22 million temporary workers in Egypt that make less than the already low minimum wage," el-Naggar added, urging the government to find a more equitable system of wealth distribution. "Such discrepancies will inevitably lead to embezzlement and corruption within our state institutions," he said, encouraging Egypt's trade unions to continue pushing for a higher national minimum wage. El-Naggar also criticized the new tax law, pointing out that it was "easily circumvented." "The government granted land to an Arab businessman in Toshka for as little as LE50 per acre," he said. "What's more, it exempted him from taxes." Translated from the Arabic Edition.
