Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has called for austerity measures on several occasions. He made one of his key statements about the issue during a television interview in November 2015: “We are ready to go hungry to build our country.” It seems that though Sisi’s words resounded among millions of Egyptians whether they liked him or not, they fell on deaf ears in the government.
Government spending has long suffered from bloat in Egypt. A well-informed government source told Al-Bawaba News on Aug. 20 that the International Monetary Fund, in one of its reports on Egypt’s ministries and institutions prior to approving a $12 billion loan for Egypt, had lamented the excessive number of advisers in each ministry. This statement came alongside reports by the Egyptian monitoring authorities stating that there are a large number of highly paid advisers in ministries including international cooperation, supply, health, investment, health, education and industry. The reports also noted that the names of these advisers are listed on the ministries' payment statements all the time, although they work for short periods without offering the ministries any real services.
