The undersecretary of the Planning and Budget Committee in the House of Representatives, Mostafa Salem, has criticized EgyptAir for appointing 33 new advisors to the company despite its carried forward losses totaling LE29.4 billion.
He criticized the company’s lack of commitment to rationalizing spending.
The MP made the statements in the plenary session during the discussion of the final account of the state’s general budget for 2022/2023, in the presence of Finance Minister Mohamed Maait, the Deputy Minister of Planning, Ahmed Kamali, and the head of the Central Auditing Organization, Hisham Badawi.
Salem explained: “During the discussion of the final account in the Plan and Budget Committee, two very strange issues appeared before us. Although the Cabinet issued many decisions, and instructions for rationalizing spending, we were surprised when EgyptAir – even though the balance of its carried forward losses amounted to LE 29.4 billion – appointed 33 consultants, so where is the rationalization of spending in that?”
“As for the second issue it is most strange, as we found, during the discussion of the final accounts of the Petroleum Ministry, that the number of employees in the ministry is only one, with 550 employees seconded from other companies,” he noted.
“Ministry officials said at the time that this was to reduce the state’s general budget, which we saw as not true,” Salem said.
“The Egyptian state spent LE1.2 trillion on the social protection and human development sector, representing 55 percent of total expenditures, where LE412 billion was spent on wages with a growth rate of 15 percent, LE 454 billion with a growth rate of 32 percent, LE212 billion on education with a growth rate of nine percent, and LE 147 billion on the sector of health with a growth rate of eight percent,” he explained.
