[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Egypt’s Minister of Supply Khaled Hanafi has resigned amid the highest-profile corruption case since President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi came to power in 2014.Hanafi’s resignation is the most senior-level fallout from a probe into whether millions of dollars intended to subsidise farmers were used to purchase wheat that did not exist.
Egypt’s supply ministry is in charge of a massive food subsidy programme and the main state grain buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC).
Parliamentarians who formed a fact-finding commission to investigate the fraud have said upwards of 2 million tonnes, or 40 per cent of the locally procured crop, may be missing.
The general prosecutor has ordered arrests, travel bans, and asset freezes for several private silo owners and others allegedly involved in the scandal.
"Experience has proven that being in a position of authority is no longer a picnic" Hanafi said as he announced his resignation on state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
Egypt, the world’s largest importer of wheat, has been mired in controversy over whether much of the roughly 5 million tonnes 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.