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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 March 1999 Issue No. 421 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 March 1999 Issue No. 421
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Housing policy under fire
By Gamal Essam El-DinDeputies from both the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) and the opposition unified ranks this week, squarely blaming the government for a chronic housing crisis. Housing Minister Ibrahim Soleiman was castigated by opposition MPs for failing to come up with a new housing bill that would break rent ceilings for old buildings. Worse still, he was accused of playing a role in exacerbating construction offences.
Responding to two parliamentary interpellations (questions that must be answered) and 13 requests for information, Soleiman rejected the charges, declaring that the two interpellations were based on "sheer lies." He said the Housing Ministry, acting through the General Authority for Housing Cooperatives, made a significant contribution to cracking the housing problem by building over two million housing units for limited-income families during the past 17 years. He said another major housing project for people of the same class, under the auspices of Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, was launched last March in which 70,000 subsidised units will be built in the coming six years.
The stormy debate opened on Saturday when Rafaat Seif, a member of the leftist Tagammu Party, directed the first interpellation at Soleiman. Seif asserted that Soleiman's housing policy was mainly aimed at scrapping the time-honoured principle of building subsidised houses for the poor. "This led to a shortage in supply and a sharp rise in the prices of housing units," Seif said.
Explaining the charges, Seif said the construction cost of a 100-square metre housing unit in a supposedly subsidised project is LE30,000, but that the unit is sold to young people at LE55,000. The project is funded by a loan from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Insurance at an interest rate of six per cent. The unit, however, is sold to young people at an interest rate of 14 per cent, said Seif. This, Seif added, made the purchase of a housing unit beyond the reach of millions of young Egyptians. "In capitalist countries such as Britain, France and Sweden, families are provided incentives and subsidies to pay for a home, but in Egypt the poor are crushed by the stiff implementation of market economy laws," said Seif.
Seif also charged that Soleiman turned 44,000 feddans on the outskirts of Cairo into a luxurious city of villas and palaces for millionaires. "This area of land was originally devoted to the construction of subsidised housing units for the poor, but he opted to give it to the rich and powerful," said Seif.
Seif went as far as to accuse Soleiman of corruption. He said Soleiman used to work as an engineering consultant for Hoda Abdel-Moneim. Widely known as the "iron lady", Abdel-Moneim was a leading businesswoman who, in the late 1980s, collected millions of pounds from people to build housing units but managed to escape with the money to Greece. "Minister Soleiman was the engineering consultant behind the large number of construction offences that were committed by Abdel-Moneim's company," Seif said.
Hurling another accusation, Seif said that no sooner had Soleiman taken office as housing minister than he awarded the Engineering, Environmental and Civil Consultancy Office all contracts related to implementing the ministry's wide network of water and road projects. "Since it is widely reported that this office was owned by Soleiman himself, he has to provide us with a detailed statement on its activities before and after taking office as minister," Seif said.
Seif also said that Soleiman was always trying to give the impression that he is "an extraordinary minister with a great ability for implementing giant projects in a short time. This is true, but it comes at the expense of citizens. The new 26th of July route was constructed in a short time, but housing experts later affirmed that it is rife with grave engineering mistakes which could put the lives of citizens at great risk. The same applies to the Qattamiya housing units which were built in a short period of time but without observing sound construction specifications."
Independent MP Abdel-Moneim El-Oleimi focused his parliamentary interpellation on the failure of the Housing Ministry to draft an acceptable bill aimed at breaking rent ceilings for old buildings and liberalising the housing sector. "The ministry has even failed to properly address the rapid growth of the number of construction offences in major cities such as Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta. Many ministerial and administrative decrees were issued to regulate the demolition and construction works but that led to the suffering of the poor and caused social turbulence and acts of thuggery in the shantytowns around major cities," he said.
El-Oleimi was joined by six members of the National Democratic Party who agreed that the Housing Ministry bears most of the responsibility for the deteriorating conditions of housing in the country.
Soleiman argued that the housing crisis should not be blamed on his ministry only. "There are many factors which led to the severity of the housing crisis in the last few years. Foremost among them are the runaway growth of the population, rapid immigration from the countryside to major cities, devoting the major part of national investments to the industrial sector and the reluctance of the private sector to invest in housing. This is not to mention the many socialist laws which froze housing rents, created an unhealthy landlord-tenant relationship and led to encroachment on agricultural land and the growth of haphazard communities," Soleiman said. And yet, he added, the state remained committed to funding low-cost housing. "The state spent as much as LE42 billion in the last 16 years to build low-cost housing units. In the last five-year development plan, the state allocated LE9.5 billion for building 331,417 low-priced housing units over five years," Soleiman said.
However, Soleiman defended his policy of devoting large areas of land for millionaires to build luxurious housing units. "This is necessary because it is a very important factor in attracting citizens to live in these remote areas," Soleiman said.
On his relationship with Hoda Abdel-Moneim, Soleiman said he worked as a consultant for her in just one project. "This was at Orouba area in Heliopolis, but I left her at a time when consultancy professors were rushing to work for her," he said. He also emphasised that the contracts for the ministry's water and road projects were awarded to the Consultancy Office for reasons of quality of implementation and a proven record of achievements.
As for the construction offences in Qattamiya, Soleiman said these were discovered when he took office as minister. "I stated then that these buildings should be demolished and the whole matter referred to prosecution authorities," he said. He added that six months of work were required for the 26th of July route to take its final shape.
