Egypt plans to reinstate municipal oversight councils
Parliament hopes to pass a bill yet this year to tackle corrupt municipal workers in Egypt, even as the federal government is cracking down on protesters who are trying to take on alleged malfeasance at the highest levels.
CAIRO — A bill designed to crack down on rampant government corruption at the local level and implement significant reforms is making its way through Egypt's parliament.
Municipal corruption has run amok without local councils' oversight, according to sources who spoke with Al-Monitor. The last local councils were dissolved by the Cairo Administrative Court following the 2011 revolution. While municipal employees are appointed by the state in Egypt, local councils are elected by the people and tasked with monitoring municipalities' performance.
Mohammed Salah Abu Hamila, a member of parliament’s Local Administration Committee, told Al-Monitor parliament will discuss the local administration bill within the next 60 days, and once the bill is adopted, local council elections will be scheduled, probably in early 2020. The committee has finished discussing the draft law of April 2017 and submitted it to the general secretariat of the parliament for discussion, but it has yet to receive amendment proposals from the government and parliament.
Abu Hamila said both parliament and the government believe that the lack of municipal services and the intransigence and poor performance of municipalities have contributed to public discontent that led to protests that began Sept. 20 in Cairo and several other Egyptian cities. The demonstrations came in response to calls by Egyptian businessman Mohamed Ali, who accused President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, his family and army leaders of financial corruption. Thousands of people have been arrested in the protests.
