THE dispute over the sale of the Amoun Island Hotel, built on a 248- acre island in the Upper Egyptian city of Aswan, has led to warnings that Cabinet ministers are deliberately violating their constitutional commitments by dividing their loyalties between their officialresponsibilities and their private businesses. The public was angered to discover that the Amoun Island Hotel was sold for only about $15 per square metre to Palm Hills, a tourist investment company co-owned by Minister of Housing and New Urban Communities Ahmed el-Maghrabi, and his cousin, ex-Minister of Transport Mohamed Mansour. The press disclosed that Palm Hills only had to pay LE80 million for the property; it then engaged in clever legal and administrative manoeuvres and ended up only paying LE4 million! The fuss about the hotel only ended when President Hosni Mubarak ordered the revocation of the purchasing contract and the holding of a new international tender to sell the property to the highest bidder. Despite the presidential decree, el- Maghrabi and Mansour have come under fire for allegedly refusing to abandon their private business interests after they were appointed as ministers. Under increasing pressure from the press and the public, Parliament has had to expand its investigation into the ministers' allegedly deliberate violation of the Constitution, which prevents the Prime Minister, his ministers or any other official from making any deals or transactions with governmental companies, organisations or authorities, while they are in office. The list of ministers, suspected of mixing public and private business, includes Minister of Agriculture Amin Abaza, who also used to be a businessman before he was handed the agricultural portfolio. A few months ago, Abaza came under fire because it was claimed that he was violating the Constitution by dividing his time between his office in the Ministry of Agriculture and the office of the board chairman of a private company called Optima Global Holding. The Minister of Agriculture has also been accused of collaborating, in his capacity as Optima's board chairman, with the bankrupt businessman Nabil el-Boushi, who coaxed many politicians, members of the entertainment community and sporting figures into letting him invest their money. After collecting a huge amount of cash from them, el-Boushi fled the country. He was arrested in Dubai and is now being tried for embezzlement. Meanwhile, MPs led by Hisham Mostafa Khalil have ordered a powerful watchdog to investigate the suspicious purchase of a vast plot of land in the upmarket northeast Cairo district of Nasr City for only LE100 million ($1=LE5.60), although the land there is easily worth LE50,000 per square metre. The buyer apparently represented a company owned by a Cabinet minister, whose name has been withheld for legal reasons. Khalil, son of late Prime Minister Mostafa Khalil, has vowed to disclose more scandalous incidents of land-grabbing by ministers and other officials.
