Vito

Doaa Syed 16 April 2017

The British newspaper, The Independent, said that with the spread of bribery and corruption in Egypt, the government of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi decided to stop them, adding that the government issues news every month about the arrest of a corrupt official.

The newspaper pointed out that corruption breaks the morale of people and gives them a feeling of lack of hope, noting that it was one of the main reasons for the 2011 revolution that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak.

Analysts emphasized that despite the crackdown, more work needed to be done to fight corruption.

Dr. Walaa Jad Al-Karim, Director General of Partners for Transparency, said that the efforts of the Administrative Control Authority are very fruitful and there is a noticeable decline in corruption incidents.

Analysts, including Jad al-Karim, said there was a need for legal reform, including guarantees of freedom of information, protection for whistleblowers, and the autonomy of agencies charged with fighting corruption.

"There is a strong political rhetoric to combat corruption, as the president always talks about fighting corruption," Jad Al-Karim said, "We need to translate this matter into faster legislation."

Kinda Hattar, Transparency International's regional advisor in the Middle East and North Africa, said that Egypt's decline in the 2016 Global Corruption Index is partly due to "restrictions imposed on civil society and general oversight of corruption."

Since 2015, the Administrative Control Authority has pursued several high-profile cases, including the Minister of Agriculture, who was forced to resign and was sentenced ten years later to receive bribes, and in January, a judge hung himself in custody the day after his arrest for corruption.