Egypt MPs are divided on whether to declare the House of Representatives’ budget or not.
The parliament speaker Ali Abdel Aal expressed willingness – along with other MPs – to keep it secret, as he considers it one aspect of “national security”; but some MPs argued that the citizens of Egypt should know it in full transparency and clarity.
MP Ahmed al-Tantawi said that there is no secret about the parliament’s budget and expenses, calling for putting the budget up for public debate transparently.
The MP al-Sayyed Hijazy said that the House of Representatives should be more transparent and clear in dealing with objects of expenditure, and this starts with the House itself, followed even by the Executive Branch.
He added that some MPs leaking parts of the House’s budget was due to a lack of transparency.
However, MP Mohamed Abu Hamed said that the parliament speaker Abdel Aal’s point was not to keep the entire House’s budget secret, but some items of it such as "expenditures on armored cars". Hamed added that such details are considered aspects of national security.
MP Mohamed Sadat embarrassed the parliament late January when he said that House of Representatives bought three luxury cars for millions of pounds.
The Parliament admitted one day later, in a statement, to allocating LE18 million for three armored Mercedes cars, during the period from December 2015 to February 2016.
The announcement dismayed Egyptians who have been living under tough economic measures since the flotation of their currency last month in which it lost over half of its value in the exchange rate against the US dollar.
