CAIRO: A new report by the Central Administration for Illegal Gains confirmed the involvement of 14 members of the People's Assembly and Shoura Council as well as the former head of the Specialized Medical Councils in exploiting public funds and violating regulations for issuing permits for free treatment by the state. The Public Funds Prosecution is currently investigating the case known as the ‘Free Medical Treatment' case in which MPs belonging to the lower and upper houses, are involved in corruption and the misappropriation of public funds to gain access to the health ministry's free medical treatment program. According to the Central Administration for Illegal Gains report, these MPs and officials had issued free treatment decrees for cases which the program does not cover as well as covering surgeries that cost amounts that go beyond the ceiling allowed by the program. The case of MPs exploiting the state's free medical care program was brought to light when PA speaker Ahmed Fathi Sorour presented a report to the Prosecutor General regarding a number of MPs who had made infringements on and abused their authority to exploit the porgram. Other latest developments in the case include a report by the Central Accounting Agency which also confirmed the involvement of MPs. “The implementation of free medical treatment decrees has many shortcomings, violations, discrepancies and reveals the deficiency of internal control which has resulted in the exploitation of public funds,” said the report which was sent to the Public Funds Prosecution. According to the report, in 2009 alone decrees for free medical treatment were worth LE 3.9 billion. In the past three years together the program spent LE 8.355 billion. Decrees for free medical treatment which were issued between July 2007 and February 2010 were worth around LE 60 million with one decree worth some LE 1.7 million.
