Agriculture feels the heat
The trial of Youssef Abdel-Rahman -- Agriculture Minister Youssef Wali's former right-hand man -- is already causing ripples in political and economic circles. Gamal Essam El-Din reports
Corruption investigations have recently shifted from banks to agriculture. Not only are an unprecedented number of opposition MPs about to direct seven interpellations (questions that must be answered by cabinet ministers) at Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture Youssef Wali, but the trial of one of Wali's former top aides is also set to begin.
Last week, Prosecutor- General Maher Abdel- Wahed ordered that Youssef Abdel-Rahman, senior undersecretary of the ministry of agriculture and the 42-year-old chairman of the Principal Bank for Development and Agricultural Credit (PBDAC), be tried by the Supreme State Security Court on a variety of corruption charges.
Abdel-Rahman faces a record 16 counts ranging from abuse of power and profiteering to misappropriation of public funds (costing the state treasury almost LE20 million in losses) and faking official documents, to importing carcinogenic pesticides and toxic chemicals. Amongst the recent spate of high-profile corruption scandals, Abdel- Rahman is the official facing the most charges.
Political pundits, however, say they are less shocked by the long list of accusations, than by the fact that Abdel-Rahman is a close associate of Wali, who has been agriculture minister since 1982. In fact, these pundits say, the Administrative Control Authority (ACA) itself -- the watchdog agency entrusted with exposing white-collar corruption -- argued that the diversity of charges mainly stems from the fact that Wali expanded Abdel-Rahman's spheres of authority to include no less than 30 official posts.
Abdel-Wahed said Abdel-Rahman breached the state's trust. In spite of the fact that he had been entrusted with a number of prestigious and well- paid positions, Abdel-Rahman "and his accomplices were blinded by the illicit gains they made from 1997 to August 2002 when he was arrested and taken into custody", Abdel-Wahed said.
Abdel-Rahman is the prime suspect amongst 21 defendants -- including nine other high- ranking agriculture ministry officials -- being tried for corruption by the Supreme State Security Court. The list includes Hani Kamal, who was the general manager of Wali's office and the executive manager of the Agriculture Ministry's Economic Unit. Six employees from the Egyptian Company for the Production, Marketing and Exporting of Agricultural Crops are also on trial, including 38-year-old Randa El-Shami, who allegedly received bribes to the tune of $130,000 and LE7,000.
El-Shami is also implicated in a scandal involving sexual favours she allegedly gave Abdel- Rahman in exchange for her appointment as an adviser at the Agricultural Exchange. In fact, Abdel- Rahman's arrest last August came after El- Shami's admission of the affair. The affair also served as the vehicle by which the ACA managed to seal their case. Abdel- Rahman was taped as he accepted a $3 million bribe from a French company to import and distribute its hazardous pesticides on the domestic market. In a series of wiretapped phone calls, El-Shami suggested to Abdel-Rahman that the Agricultural Exchange be the French company's local commercial agent in return for hefty commissions.
One of the stickier issues that came up during the six-month investigation into the case was Abdel-Rahman's personal relationship with Wali. This relationship, Abdel-Rahman said, was so tight that he managed to obtain Wali's approval of the French company directly supplying the ministry with pesticides, rather than offering the contract as a tender amongst competing companies. Wali's approval was endorsed by Prime Minister Atef Ebeid, upon which Hani Kamal (another defendant) actually gave the order for the French company's products to be bought by the Agriculture Ministry.
Observers say Abdel-Rahman's proximity to Wali was a result of Abdel-Rahman being one of the few officials who approved of Wali's controversial policy of normalising agricultural relations with Israel. Abdel-Rahman visited Israel in 1986 within the framework of reinforcing agricultural relations.
Another troublesome issue that arose during the investigations was the letter sent by Wali to the prosecution, arguing that ever since his appointment in 1982, not a single carcinogenic pesticide or toxic chemical has ever found its way into Egypt. In his 23 January statement, however, Prosecutor Abdel-Wahed said that hazardous chemicals and pesticides were in fact imported into Egypt by Abdel-Rahman and his accomplices at the ministry.
Abdel-Rahman's case has already begun to ripple in political circles. First of all, the case provided Wali's numerous detractors with a golden opportunity to corner the minister with a barrage of criticism. Most of these detractors are either leftist MPs or independent newspapers which regularly feed on scandals with a goal of tainting the reputations of high- ranking government and ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) officials. They were emboldened by the fact that Wali was stripped of much of his power when he moved from NDP's secretary-general position to the more honorary post of deputy chairman for internal affairs last December.
At the People's Assembly, seven opposition MPs, mostly leftist and Muslim Brotherhood MPs, eagerly await the chance to fire their questions at the previously untouchable Wali. Most of these deputies have long held Wali responsible for what they call "the shameful crime of normalising agricultural relations with Israel". They also plan to take him to task for what they say is a proliferation of corruption and cronyism at unprecedented levels. Adel Eid, one of Wali's most active parliamentary critics, told Al-Ahram Weekly that it is precisely because senior officials like Wali are left undisturbed for extended periods of time in high-level posts that myriad forms of corruption and cronyism come to dominate the scene.
According to opposition MPs, Wali is also indirectly linked to another corruption case involving two NDP MPs, Ihab El- Meligui and Hussein Eweiss, who are accused of forging official documents in order to illegally obtain huge financial rewards for land which was sequestrated by the government in 1961. It is common knowledge that El-Meligui and Eweiss were personally nominated by Wali to run for election in 2000 as NDP candidates from Wali's native Al-Fayoum.
NDP MPs, however, dismiss claims that the two trials will negatively affect Wali in any way. An NDP MP, who asked to remain anonymous, told Al-Ahram Weekly that corruption in the Agriculture Ministry is not significant. "The most important thing is that the concerned minister was not involved," he said. As for the matter of Israel, the NDP MP said that Egypt, like many other countries, has diplomatic relations with Israel, which "means it's a state policy for which no minister can be tried". Plus, said the NDP MP, Wali suspended all agricultural relations with Israel in the aftermath of the siege imposed on the Palestinians and Yasser Arafat by Ariel Sharon last April.
