Prosecution services in Alexandria said Friday they had arrested three sanitary drainage officials for purchasing invalid water pumps worth LE30 million for a local sewage plant, a corrupt purchase using public funds.
The suspected officials from the Housing Ministry’s Water and Sanitary Drainage Authority had been tasked with upgrading a drainage facility in Alexandria’s Syouf district.
Egypt’s government admitted the failure in servicing people in the aftermath of heavy rainstorms that submerged the province’s streets and killed five people in October was partially due to the delay in implementing a LE68 million upgrade scheme for the Syouf plant.
According to prosecutors, the officials and the project’s infrastructure advisers procured seven water pumps in early 2013 for LE30 million, adding that the machines, which were not up to quality standards, had failed to operate until recently.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
