04:33 PM Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Books – Nashaat Ali:
Representative Mustafa Salem, Undersecretary of the Planning and Budget Committee in the House of Representatives, said in his speech at the plenary session today, Wednesday, during the discussion of the final account of the state’s general budget, in the presence of Dr. Mohamed Maait, Minister of Finance, Dr. Ahmed Kamali, Deputy Minister of Planning, and Counselor Hisham Badawi, Head of the Central Auditing Organization. One of the most important matters he cares about as an agent of the Planning and Budget Committee is: It is the role of the state towards citizens with regard to the social protection sector and human development, both education and health.
Salem explained that despite the difficulties facing all countries of the world; Including Egypt and the negative repercussions on economic conditions and the rise in inflation rates and prices. The state spent 1.2 trillion pounds on the social protection and human development sector, representing 55% of total expenditures. 412 billion pounds were spent on wages, with a growth rate of 15%, 454 billion pounds with a growth rate of 32%, 212 billion pounds on education, with a growth rate of 9%, and 147 billion pounds on the health sector, with a growth rate of 8%.
The representative of the Plan and Budget Committee in the House of Representatives added: During the discussion of the final accounts in the Plan and Budget Committee, two extremely strange topics appeared before us:
– Despite the Council of Ministers issuing many decisions, periodicals, and instructions to rationalize spending; We were surprised by EgyptAir, even though the balance of its carried forward losses amounted to 29.4 billion pounds, but it appointed 33 advisors to the company, so where is the rationalization of spending in that?
– The second most strange topic: As we found during the discussion of the final account of the Ministry of Petroleum; The number of employees in the Ministry is only one employee, and the number is 550 employees seconded from companies, and officials in the Ministry reported, at the time, that this matter was to reduce the state’s general budget, which we saw as not true; Article 108 of the Executive Regulations of Civil Service Law No. 81 of 2018 stipulates that a worker may be seconded to another party for a period of 4 years, provided that the entity to which he is seconded bears his salary, while it has been shown that the secondees receive their salaries from companies, in order to circumvent and evade the application of special laws and rules. With the wages applied in the government, in addition to that they are assigned after the expiration of the four years, as the law requires that the worker not be promoted for the duration of his secondment after the four years, and so that the seconded employees benefit from their promotions in violation of the law, adding that the committee requested data, salaries, and assignment periods for these seconded employees. ; However, the Ministry concealed this data and has not provided it to the committee until now.
The Undersecretary of the “Representatives’ Plan” indicated that the Central Organization for Organization and Administration has established functional structures and job files for all ministries. Was this done by the Ministry of Petroleum?
Salem directed his speech to Counselor Hisham Badawi, Head of the Central Auditing Organization, demanding that the agency’s reports during previous years on the office of the Ministry of Petroleum be reviewed, and whether these violations were addressed or not? He asked him to send those reports to the House of Representatives.
Salem concluded his speech with the need for the Ministry of Finance and the Central Agency for Organization and Administration, in conjunction with the Ministry of Petroleum, to prepare a functional structure for the Ministry, review the salaries, promotions, and duration of secondment and assign these employees, implement the law in accordance with the recommendation of the Planning and Budget Committee of the House of Representatives, and provide the House with the result of the examination and report within three months from its date.
