A parliamentary Committee of inquiry, which should clear up the corruption scandal with the purchase of wheat from the local production, presented its final report yesterday. Increasing the pressure on the supply Minister, to vacate his chair.
Egypt, the world's largest wheat importer, bought about 5 million tonnes of wheat from the local production this year. They allege that consist of 2 million tonnes only on paper and that subsidies were scored.
Already in the last week of an interim report was submitted to Parliament in Cairo, where it was said that 200,000 tons of wheat in ten state silos could not be found. Parliamentarians know that the number of unreported cases is much higher, but this still the evidence is lacking.
The supply Minister Khaled Hanafi announced in July of the press that missing only 4% of the wheat, the grain in Egypt speaks, however, by 2 million tonnes. If it now should turn out that Egypt's grain supply has a big imbalance, the country would have to buy more wheat on the world market. This could be but problematic because of the enormous reserves of dollars missing.
The Egyptian Parliament will this week discuss the report and may trust asking for Hanafi. It says the Ministers have political responsibility, even if it has not been shown to, that he has enriched himself personally.
