The Telecom Egypt (TE) workers union issued what it called a “blacklist” of mistakes committed by Communications Minister Khaled Negm, requesting that Prime Minister-designate Sherif Ismail not keep him in the ministry.
The union said in a statement that the minister's comments caused a sharp drop in the company’s share price and – consequently – in the value of state assets.
Among the union's grievances, Negm said the license was not one of his priorities and ordered a re-study of the new mobile phone license, although the issue has been thoroughly studied for six full years since TE first requested the license. This decision, according to the union, wasted large profits for the government in terms of opportunity cost.
The minister was also the cause of an internal conflict within the communications sector since he came to office last March.
Although Negm gave more press statements than any other minister, which the union sarcastically said may entitle him to a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, they nonetheless negatively affected TE’s position in the stock exchange.
Negm did not reduce the infrastructure prices, whereas the service providers did reduce theirs, which validates the standpoint of the former CEO of Egypt Telecom, whom the minister dismissed last May.
To the dismay of the union, Negm did not reduce infrastructure prices, even though the service providers did reduce theirs. The former CEO of Egypt Telecom was dismissed in May for supporting a reduction in infrastructure prices.
The union also said the minister caused a drop in the revenues of TE Data, which were targeted to reach LE300 million, and dismissed Ahmed Osama and Tamer Gadalla, the managing directors who had achieved substantial revenues this fiscal year.
The union also pointed out that when the Opera Telephone Central, the company’s most prestigious building, was set on fire the minister did not provide any information about the cause of the fire or where the employees who worked there would be transfered to.
The statement requested that the new Prime Minister-designate dismiss Negm, his assistant Khaled al-Sherif and the interim board of the company, which is headed by Mohamed Salem.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
