All state bodies, including the army and police, are under financial scrutiny from the government’s Central Auditing Organization its director, Hesham Geneina, told private satellite news channel al-Mehwar on Monday.
The agency is not a “scarecrow” used by the current regime or a tool to settle accounts, he said.
The funds of the presidency and the Armed Forces are being subjected to monitoring for the first time, Geneina said.
“The army’s commercial activities are subject to the CAO’s control, but other issues related to national security, armament, and the armed forces’ general budget are discussed by the National Security Council," he clarified.
The spokesperson for the Armed Forces, however, denied reports that the army had agreed to allow the CAO and other regulatory bodies to oversee all their commercial activities in a statement posted on his Facebook page Monday evening.
Geneina emphasized that the CAO is not only tracking the financial dealings of former regime figures, but also scrutinizing the current presidency and cabinet. He added that violations, if detected, are reported to the relevant authorities.
Financial breaches at the Interior Ministry surpassed LE2.5 billion for the period 2006-2011, Geneina said, adding that the panel tasked with reviewing these violations has yet to conclude its work.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
