CAIRO — Amid fierce criticism from parliamentarians and the media, Egyptian Minister of Supply Khaled Hanafy announced his resignation in a press conference Aug. 25. His departure comes following accusations of corruption regarding wheat supply and of wasting public funds, estimated by the public prosecution at more than 500 million Egyptian pounds ($56.3 million). Financial subsidies provided to Egyptian wheat-producing farmers were allegedly stolen and low-price wheat was supplied instead of Egyptian wheat, in addition to allegations that quantities of wheat were falsely reported as being supplied.

In this regard, the fact-finding commission investigating corruption in Egypt’s wheat supply submitted its final report to parliament Aug. 25 and accused Hanafy both politically and legally of corruption and manipulation of the wheat system. The wheat deficit reached 559.7 million Egyptian pounds based on the commission’s field visits to silos. Accordingly, the commission, which began its work July 2, decided to refer the entire report to the public prosecutor and the Illicit Gains Authority for investigation.

Egyptian Attorney General Nabil Sadek said in a statement Aug. 7 that investigations into the wheat corruption case resulted in “the emergence of new facts whereby some [wheat silo owners] forged documents in the names of farmers and owners of agricultural lands proving the cultivation of those lands with wheat and the supply of crops — which was not true.”

He added that the 13 detained people who were accused of corruption “managed to seize funds estimated at more than $55 million under the pretext that this was the value of the local wheat that was supplied.”