The Hidelina blood bags case began in January 2007, when an Egyptian Ministry of Health employee, Sheer El-Sharkawi, claimed to have found 200,000 contaminated bags used to package donated blood in the ministry's storage area. The bags, she alleged, were infected with bacteria and fungi likely to cause hepatitis or cancer. The company manufacturing the bags is owned by MP Hany Sorour, a representative of the ruling National Democratic Party, whose trial began on June 12, 2007 and ended last month with a verdict exonerating all the defendants in the case. At the time of the investigation there was much public debate about corruption and its direct aftermaths on economic development and the general climate. In August of the same year, the Administrative Control Authority (ACA), which tracks corruption within government agencies, arrested two aides to the Minister of Culture on charges of corruption. The first was Ahmed Hussein, caught red-handed with a bribe of LE 10,000 ($1,800) from a contractor bidding for a restoration project of the Nubian Museum; while the second, Ayman Abdel-Moneim, was accused of collecting bribes from contractors working for the Ministry of Culture. The investigations revealed that both defendants have been on the take for some time, pocketing bribes ranging from fish dinners to luxurious apartments. Over the past decade, a number of corruption cases involving ministers' aides have erupted, especially in the ministries of information and agriculture. The cases have resulted in lengthy trials, occasionally leading to the conviction of several government officials. Some opponents of this process insist that these cases are politically motivated, designed to distract attention from far larger and more important corruption issues concerning privatization and profit-making partnerships between businesspeople and the ruling elite. In 2002 alone, as many as 48 high-ranking officials including former cabinet ministers, provincial governors and members of parliament were convicted of influence peddling, favoritism, profiteering and embezzlement. The current law regulating legal proceedings against cabinet ministers suspected of illegal activities dates back to the 1958-1961 Egyptian-Syrian union. The law, which was abrogated in Syria, has never been implemented in Egypt, and is still in place. In fact, ordinary Egyptians echo stories about profit-sharing deals between high-ranking politicians and members of the Egyptian business community. "Yacoubian Building, a controversial movie released in mid-2006, portrayed a society in which corruption had become a way of life. A society sinking in the mire of poverty and social disintegration. In the movie, a corrupt minister makes a deal with a drug dealer who eventually becomes a member of parliament. Bribery is systematically entwined in Egyptian daily life. People bribe public employees to get both legal and illegal services. Public employees, in turn, are usually looking for small cash tips from people to offset extremely small salaries. Corruption among municipal-level officials in Egypt is especially rampant. The situation is reportedly described by Zakareya Azmy, chief of staff to the Egyptian president, as "sinking up to its ears in corruption. Local authorities enjoy enormous power over people's day-to-day lives in Egypt. They license shops, monitor markets and issue building and remodeling permits. Generally speaking, it is difficult to get the license required to conduct any of these activities without paying off local employees, who sometimes create networks of power based on their ability to distribute favors. In July 2007, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif held a high-profile meeting, including his Ministers of Interior, Justice and Administrative Development, along with his attorney general and the chairman of the Administrative Control Authority. His goal: to focus his cabinet on the war on corruption. In this meeting, which came at the behest of President Hosni Mubarak himself, the prime minister promised a sustained war on bribery. At the meeting, the prime minister stressed that the government would pursue the war on three fronts: first, reviewing and modifying the laws and bylaws governing the work of a number of different watchdogs; second, taking more steps towards creating an "electronic government, a process that replaced a number of state employees with technology, reducing the opportunity for government officials to exercise corruption; third, increasing the level of transparency in government purchases and official regulations. The government, according to the prime minister, will push a package of new laws to the parliament later this year, which will help harmonize the work of watchdog agencies, reduce redundancy and energize their work. One of these laws concerns "public function. Over the last three years, some laws, such as the Egyptian Tax Code, have been modified in the interests of fighting corruption. But the Egyptian people continue to have their pockets raided by corrupt officials, and the government has done nothing beyond adopting strong rhetoric. In Egypt, there are many watchdog organizations, costing the public finance a lot, but without a tangible outcome. Their jurisdictions overlap and their functions usually depend on the political will. Although the laws governing these monitoring organizations do not require secrecy for their periodical reports, this is the actual case. Politicians including People's Assembly members, journalists, academics and laypersons find it difficult to obtain these reports to get accurate information about the drain of public resources. Corruption has become a myth in a society like Egypt, where people talk a lot about it, while accurate information relating to the phenomenon is rare. Sameh Fawzy is an Egyptian journalist, PhD researcher, and specialist on governance and citizenship.
