CAIRO: The announcement that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Egypt have agreed to a $4.8 billion loan deal has left many in Egypt frustrated and angry that the government went forward with the agreement without any public discussion on the matter. “This is a loan that in the end we all know who is going to pay for it, Egyptians and nobody wanted to hear our criticism and frustration,” activist Amr Mohamed, who has spoken out on the loan on social media networks, told Bikyamasr.com on Tuesday afternoon. An IMF staff mission headed by Andreas Bauer, Division Chief in the Middle East and Central Asia Department, and the Egyptian authorities announced on Tuesday that they had reached a staff-level agreement on a 22-month Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) in the amount of about $4.8 billion. The SBA will support the government's economic program through fiscal year 2013/14. Egypt's request for an SBA is expected to be submitted to the IMF Executive Board for approval in a few weeks. “The Egyptian authorities have developed a national program that seeks to promote economic recovery, address the country's fiscal and balance of payments deficits, and lay the foundation for rapid job creation and socially balanced growth in the medium term,” said Bauer in a statement from the IMF. But activists and NGOs in Egypt have repeatedly said that the entire process has been void of transparency and had recently come together to oppose the loan, demanding that the government of President Mohamed Morsi end discussions with the IMF. It didn't happen. Last week, a group of 17 political parties, NGOs and human rights associations in Egypt have called for loan negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to be ended immediately, citing a lack of transparency and the undemocratic nature of the current development. Among the groups were the Popular Current Party, The Egyptian Current Party, The Strong Egypt Party as well as rights NGOs New Woman Foundation, Hisham Mubarak Law Center, Habi Center for Environmental Rights, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Egyptian Women Legal Aid and others. “The negotiations of the terms and conditions of the loan agreement, including the government's economic reform program, have lacked transparency on the part of both the IMF and the Government of Egypt," said the statement sent to media outlets on a week ago Monday. “Moreover, these negotiations have continued in the absence of an elected parliament, which was dissolved on 14 June 2012, and with the president of Egypt holding full legislative authority. Any agreement under these circumstances would contravene the democratic principle of separation of powers and Egypt's longstanding constitutional requirement of parliamentary oversight over executive decisions," the statement continued. In the end, as Morsi pushed a Gaza ceasefire, it seems to many activists that the government used the attention to push through the loan. “We will not forget what happened and we will continue to demand greater transparency in how this government functions. We are not afraid,” Mohamed added.
