The Administrative Surveillance Authority (ASA) in Egypt has accused former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq of squandering public funds during his tenure as minister of civil aviation, a post he held during the reign of deposed President Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak assigned Shafiq as Prime Minister on 29 January during the Egyptian revolution. However, Shafiq resigned from his post on 3 March following a mass protest calling for his departure. Prior to his assuming of the position of prime minister, Shafiq served as the minister of civil aviation, starting in 2002. His supporters on the social networking site Facebook have called on him to run in the next presidential elections slated for later this year. Judicial sources told Al-Masry Al-Youm that Judge Sobhi al-Labban, who was charged by the Justice Ministry to investigate Shafiq, received the ASA's investigative reports concerning the charges against him. According to the results of the investigation, officials from the Ministry of Civil Aviation squandered LE88 million on a project involving the development and construction of new buildings at the Cairo International Airport in Cairo and a number of other airports. According to the investigations, as minister of civil aviation at the time, Shafiq along with seven other officials, were accountable for the money. Shafiq is expected to be summoned by the investigating magistrate for questioning. Investigations have revealed that the officials agreed to assign the work to private construction companies at higher than market prices, at a loss of nearly LE88 million. An ASA source said Shafiq was also being investigated on other charges, but the source declined to disclose any further details. Translated from the Arabic Edition
