Egyptian Voices

Wed Jan 25, 2017 04:12

Prepared by Yasmine Selim
The Organization: Corruption is rampant in Egypt in the absence of any real and serious political will to combat it

- The Egyptian government encroached on independent bodies when Sisi dismissed Hisham Geneina

- Although 6 years have passed since the beginning of change in the Arab region ... most countries have not been able to build democratic systems

“Egypt is more corrupt in 2016,” this is what the 2016 Corruption Perceptions Index tells us, whose results were announced by Transparency International today, Wednesday.

According to Transparency International, which is concerned with combating corruption, Egypt's position on the corruption index deteriorated by two degrees in 2016, recording 34 points, compared to 36 the previous year.

The closer the country’s score on the index, which measures levels of integrity annually in various countries of the world, from zero, the more this indicates that that country is more corrupt, and the closer it is to 100, the more it reflects, the greater its integrity.

Transparency International said in its report, "Corruption remains rampant in Egypt in the absence of any real and serious political will to combat it."

Egypt ranked 108 in the corruption index out of 176 countries included in the index in 2016, and was ranked 88 out of 168 countries in 2015.

The international organization said, "The Egyptian government encroached on independent bodies when President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi dismissed, by presidential decree, the head of the Central Auditing Organization, Hisham Geneina, and condemned and prosecuted him when he revealed the extent of the cost of corruption in Egypt in the last four years."

At the end of last March, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi issued a republican decision to exempt Geneina from his position as head of the Central Auditing Organization, and to assign Counselor Hisham Badawi to carry out his duties.

About a week after the dismissal decision, the Official Gazette said, "The dismissal was based on a statement by the Supreme State Security Prosecution regarding its investigations into Geneina's statements, regarding his declaration that 600 billion pounds is the cost of corruption in Egypt, which carried wrong data."

In late July, the court ruled to imprison Geneina for a year and bail 10 thousand pounds to stop the execution of the ruling, as well as to fine him 20 thousand pounds, in the case of publishing false news about the extent of corruption in Egypt.

Genena filed a lawsuit in which the President of the Republic and the Speaker of Parliament sued in their capacity, which is still pending.

Arab countries are getting worse

Transparency organization says that despite the passage of six years since the beginning of change in the Arab region, this change has not yet reaped its results in terms of combating corruption and ending impunity.

He added that in 2016, most Arab countries were unable to achieve real results that reflect the will of the people to build effective democracies that give space for accountability and accountability.

The majority of Arab countries significantly declined on the Corruption Perceptions Index, as 90% of these countries scored less than 50 points on the index, and the United Arab Emirates and Qatar remained above 50 points, despite their decline in 2016, as the report shows.

According to the report, 6 Arab countries (Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Libya) fall within the list of the 10 most corrupt countries in the world, due to political instability, internal conflicts, wars and the challenges of terrorism.

Denmark ranked first, with a score of 90, followed by New Zealand, while Somalia ranked last, with only 10 points.