CAIRO — In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, Egypt’s Minister of Supply and Internal Trade Khaled Hanafy denied accusations leveled at him by a fact-finding committee formed by parliament to investigate systematic corruption in supplying wheat to the government. He said that he objected to the corrupt system and demanded that changes be made to it, but that parliament members insisted it remain unchanged before changing their minds to criticize it now.
The wheat crisis in Egypt intensified at the beginning of July, as a number of members of parliament demanded that Hanafy be dismissed for accusations related to corruption in grain supplied by farmers to the government. According to some claims, the corruption amounted to billions of Egyptian pounds.