CAIRO: Opposition MP Mostafa Bakry said that he will present to the Public Funds Prosecution on Sunday 24 documents that prove Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif's violations in the medical treatment decrees he approved for Minister of Finance Youssef Boutros Ghali. In a phone call to the TV talk show “48 Hours,” Bakry said that the documents include nine decrees for free treatment which account for approximately LE 9 million; plane tickets to the United States, Britain and France; and copies of the transfers, checks and withdrawal statements. The Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud and the Public Funds Prosecution are currently investigating the case known publicly as ‘Free medical treatment'. Fourteen MPs from the People's Assembly and Shoura Council as well as key government officials are investigated for involvement in corruption and exploiting public funds to gain access to the Ministry of Health's free medical treatment program. Furthermore, Bakry called on the interrogation of the Prime Minister and the head of his counselors, the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Health, as “these decrees violate Presidential Decree 691 for 1975 which allows free medical treatment abroad only to those who can not afford it and can not find treatment inside the country.” The MPs included the head of the Prime Minister's Counselors, Mohamed Zein El Abdeen, who allegedly issued decrees for LE 160,000 worth of free treatment for his two children and granddaughter. Bakry explained that the decrees violated the program as they were used for buying medicines from private pharmacies without a doctor's transcription. Bakry has previously cast doubt on the investigations by the Public Funds Prosecution when it said that no relations were found between the MPs mentioned in the investigation request he presented and the employees, who issued the decrees of free medical treatment, and the heads of private hospitals where the treatment is to be held. “There are other government agencies who have confirmed the corruption and exploitation of public funds by MPs; these are the Administrative Control Authority and the Central Auditing Agency whose reports has triggered the investigations,” he said at the time.
