Alex. petroleum co. officials arrested over bribery charges

CAIRO – 2 November 2017: The East Alexandria prosecution issued a decree to arrest a department head and six other officials of Alexandria Petroleum Company, taking a EGP 2 million bribe.

The Administrative Control Authority also arrested the director-general and a number of officials in another petroleum company for being involved in several corruption cases, including bribes in exchange for arranging sham tenders.

Investigations confirmed that the defendants assigned the procurement work to the unknown occupational safety and health services with LE 7 million using false certificates and invoices. They are also accused of the seizure of public money through manipulating documents.

Earlier, the Administrative Prosecution Authority presented in its annual report on Sunday a study of some reasons bribery has become a widespread issue in Egypt and effective ways to eliminate it.

Counselor Faryal Qutb, head of the committee that prepared the report, revealed five reasons behind bribery:

1.Poor moral and religious education and the corruption of concepts that led to the misappropriation of public money.

2.Lack of real supervision and follow up on the employees.

3.Delays in the adjudication of criminal and disciplinary liability for bribery crimes in a manner that does not achieve public and private deterrence.

4.Poor salaries of employees in general.

5.Intensification of services received and accomplished by a limited number of employees.

The report, prepared by Counselor Saad Khalel, a member of the technical office, included five suggestions to eliminate bribery:

1.Increasing the minimum salary of employees to ensure a decent living. The state has made great strides in this direction.

2.Activating internal control systems and supervisory responsibility.

3.Separating applications received for service performance and work, directly dealing with the public only when necessary.

4.Increasing penalties for such crimes to reach dismissal or deprivation of pension.

5.Choosing safe places to keep deposits, all while ensuring the necessary security and warning devices.