Homeland: December 18, 2016

Wrote: Hoda Rashwan

Partners for Transparency held a meeting of high-level experts from members of Parliament from one side and leaders of civil society organizations concerned with the issue of anti-corruption on the other hand.

Representative Magdy Malak, head of the fact-finding committee for corruption in wheat supplies, participated in the table MP Muhammad Abdullah Zain, the author of the proposed law to establish the National Anti-Corruption Commission, Representative Manal Maher al-Jamil, a member of the Parliament's Human Rights Committee, as well as from civil society organizations Professors Yasser Abdel-Jawad, Director of the Arab Law Office. Shehata Muhammad Shehata, Director of the Arab Center for Integrity, Saeed Abdel Hafiz, President of the Dialogue Forum Foundation, Hani Ibrahim, President of the Mashreq Foundation for Development and Population, Ayman Aqil, President of the Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights, Abdel Nasser Kandil, Parliamentary Analyst, and Hussein Mutolib, a journalist specializing in corruption issues.

The meeting discussed ideas and visions related to the package of legislation to be completed, and the attempt to prioritize these legislations, as well as the role assigned to each party in the process of harmonizing anti-corruption legislation and enhancing transparency with the requirements of implementing Egypt's 2030 sustainable development strategy.

At the beginning of the meeting, Dr. Walaa Gad Al-Karim, Director General of Partners for Transparency, said that the meeting is gaining increasing importance in light of the continuous demands of civil society organizations for the need to develop the legal and institutional environment to combat corruption and achieve the goals of the Egypt 2030 strategy, and to support the efforts already made by some monitoring institutions. Parliamentary mechanisms, as well as translating the political discourse that focuses on combating corruption into specific procedures and practices based on a set of deterrent and sufficient laws. However, the parliamentary agenda is burdened with a huge set of legislations that are required to fulfill the constitutional entitlements and urgent developmental needs, thus providing a continuous and effective dialogue platform Between civil society and parliament could lead to pushing for anti-corruption legislation to be a priority in arranging the parliamentary agenda during the next phase.

For their part, the deputies expressed the importance of the meeting because it provides an opportunity to communicate directly with representatives of civil society organizations that have long experience in legislative reform issues to combat corruption, and they agreed that there is already a major crisis in the current legislation, and this legislation may be the main cause of corruption and regression The rates of development and the complexity of the investment environment, pointing out that the laws on information circulation and the protection of whistleblowers and witnesses may be discussed soon, while there are proposals for laws to establish a national anti-corruption commission that will be discussed in the Suggestions and Complaints Committee.

Civil society representatives emphasized the importance of bridging the current legislative gap by expediting the adoption of the two laws on information circulation and the protection of whistleblowers and witnesses, and at the same time making radical amendments to the articles of the penal code related to waste of public money and bribery, and considered these amendments as a legislative priority for any serious efforts to combat Corruption.

Representatives of parliament and the participating civil work leaders confirmed the Partners for Transparency Foundation’s request to organize another series of dialogue sessions between members of parliament and civil society in the context of the same issue, and the deputies declared their full welcome for any legislative proposals that will be submitted through civil society organizations.