The People's Assembly's decision to strip NDP MP Hani Sorour of parliamentary immunity is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to corruption, and influence-peddling among businessmen MPs, writes Gamal Essam El-Din President Hosni Mubarak's December call for constitutional amendments made no mention of Article 95 which prohibits MPs from entering into business deals with the government but does not stipulate any punishment should they be found guilty of doing so. It is the absence of fixed penalties, believe pundits, that renders the article unenforceable. "As long as this article refrains from imposing punishment, MPs will find no reason why they should stop doing business with government ministries and institutions," says Amr Hashem Rabie, a political analyst with Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies (ACPSS). Given the growing presence of businessmen in both the People's Assembly and Shura Council it is high time, argues Rabie, that the article be changed. "It is a fact that most of the businessmen who joined parliament in recent years did so in order to further their businesses," said Rabie. Calls for amending Article 95 have gained momentum in recent weeks, not least because of the furore surrounding Hani Sorour, the business tycoon member of the National Democratic Party (NDP) charged with supplying the Ministry of Health with 300,000 defective blood bags, valued at LE3 million. Sorour, the CEO of Hayedelena for Advanced Medical Industries Company, won the blood bag supply contract after he became a member of parliament in 2005, in a clear breach of Article 95 which states that no MP buy or sell property or other items to or from government entities. It was only after the bags were found defective, however, that the prosecutor- general requested the assembly strip Sorour of his immunity. Sorour, in flagrant breach of Article 95, exploited his parliamentary and NDP membership to press the Health Ministry into accepting his company's blood bags even though officials knew they did not meet international standards, said the prosecutor-general. Sorour is reported to have offered bribes and kickbacks to a number of senior Health Ministry officials to accept the bags which ministry officials have told the prosecutor- general contain bacteria and fungi likely to harm patients in the event of transfusion. Rabie believes that had the bags not been defective the MP's deals with the Health Ministry would not have been exposed. Sorour, the deputy chairman of the assembly's Economic Affairs Committee, is not the first MP to flaunt Article 95. Indeed, the assembly's Economic Committee is widely perceived as a forcing ground for businessmen eager to exploit their parliamentary membership to profit from deals with the government. In 2000 several businessmen MPs, dubbed the "loan deputies", were sentenced to ten years in jail after being found guilty of exploiting their parliamentary membership to obtain loans from state-owned banks. In 2003 Abdallah Tayel, an NDP MP who was chairman of the assembly's Economic Committee, also received a ten-year sentence after he was found guilty of using of his position as chairman of Misr Exterior Bank to offer loans without collateral, though with a large commission. In the same year Rami Lakah, an independent MP and Cairo business tycoon, fled Egypt to dodge five years in jail after being found guilty of offering bribes to Banque Du Caire officials to obtain LE1.7 billion in loans. Last year, Talaat El-Sadat, independent MP and a nephew of former president Anwar El-Sadat, exchanged accusations of corruption with Ahmed Ezz, an NDP business tycoon and chairman of the assembly's Budget and Planning Committee. El-Sadat alleged that Ezz had made use of his NDP membership to forge close relationships with cabinet ministers and monopolise the iron and steel industry in Egypt. Ezz is a close associate of Gamal, President Hosni Mubarak's 44-year-old son, chairman of the NDP's influential Policies Committee. In the current parliamentary session Emad El-Galada, an NDP business tycoon, has also been accused of offering bribes to officials in the Petroleum Ministry. According to an ACPSS report, the number of businessmen in the People's Assembly grew from 31 in 1995 to 77 in 2000. The current assembly comprises 68 businessmen, the majority from the banking and commercial sectors. To gain seats in the current parliament, said the report, businessmen spent between LE3 million and LE15 million on their 2005 parliamentary campaigns, in addition to substantial sums offered to the NDP in the form of donations. Ezz funded President Mubarak's presidential election campaign, while Sorour spent more than LE6 million in 2005 refurbishing the NDP's office in Cairo's downtown district of Al-Dhaher. "When businessmen spend huge amounts of money on the NDP and election campaigns they expect a return," says Rabie.
