A group of 300 MPs has submitted a request for the start of non-confidence procedures against Supply Minister Khaled Hanafy, following mounting allegations of his involvement in the wheat corruption scandal and recent revelations about his residence in a five-star hotel.
The MPs presented their request to Parliamentary Speaker Ali Abdelaal, who said that he would begin procedures on Monday with a session on questions relating to Hanafy's handling of the wheat corruption issue, which is his responsibility as supply minister. According to the established process, the questions in parliament should be followed at some point by a non-confidence vote.
While most MPs have not alleged Hanafy's direct involvement in corruption, many say that he has handled the issue badly, failing to clamp down on corrupt practices, including the exaggeration of wheat stocks by traders and farmers in order to obtain more government subsidies.
In particular, the minister has been accused of underestimating the disparity between the amount of wheat recorded and the amount actually in existence in domestic grain silos.
In recent weeks, many MPs, industry figures and media commentators have called for his resignation.
Among those seeking oust Hanafy from his post is MP Mostafa Bakry, who has formally submitted questions for Hanafy regarding the government-run wheat system.
Bakry has accused Hanafy of being partially implicated in the corruption, alleging that he took the side of corrupt bakers at the expense of poor citizens.
"The size of corruption in the wheat system could demolish an entire state," Bakry told parliamentary journalists.
A fact-finding commission investigating corruption in Egypt's domestic wheat supplies has delivered its final report to parliament, a lawmaker said on Monday, according to Reuters.
Egypt, the world's largest importer of wheat, has been mired in controversy over whether much of the roughly 5 million tons of grain the government said it procured in this year's harvest exists only on paper, the result of local suppliers falsifying receipts to boost government payments.
The wheat corruption report, delivered late last week to the head of parliament, concluded some 200,000 tons of wheat was missing at ten private storage sites visited by the commission, Yasser Omar, a lawmaker on the commission, told Reuters.
Hanafy told Reuters last month that only 4 percent of this year's procurement was missing. Grains industry officials have said the figure likely exceeds 2 million tonnes.
If Egypt's local wheat procurement numbers were misrepresented, it may have to spend more on foreign wheat purchases to meet domestic demand — even as the country faces a dollar shortage that has sapped its ability to import.
Egypt's fact-finding commission has brought an unprecedented level of scrutiny to Hanafy's management of the commodities sector, which has already faced criticism from grains industry officials over issues such as hacked bread distribution smart cards to subsidized rice shortages.
Nader Nour El-Din, a former adviser to the ministry of supplies, said Hanafy's policies had allowed corruption to flourish, prices on staple commodities to jump to "unprecedented levels," and public sector companies to be "destroyed" amid favoritism for private sector businesses.
Hanafy maintains that his stewardship of the supplies ministry has led to numerous successes that include savings in flour and wheat as well as the end of bread lines.
Criticism took an unexpected turn late last week, when fiery media personality and lawmaker Bakry accused Hanafy on television of using LE7 million ($788,300) in state funds to maintain a residency at a Semiramis downtown Cairo hotel.
The minister later said in a statement he had paid for the long-term hotel residence with his own personal funds. He said he had the right to spend his money how he wished, and that the allegations regarding his residence in a hotel would provoke malice and hatred among people.
Appearing before a parliament committee on agriculture on Monday, Hanafy chose not to respond to questions about the hotel controversy, saying only that he had no plans to step down.
On Tuesday, he said that he had not received any notice from parliament regarding a vote of no-confidence, saying only that the Constitution does allow for such procedures to take place.
