Prosecutors are investigating the discovery of a 6 million EGP (U.S. $1 million) deficit in the budget for a project of agricultural systems in the Sinai Peninsula, said the program's general supervisor, Said Shehata. The project, east of the Suez Canal, includes 570 acres of crops as well as livestock fattening stations, Shehata said at a press conference held at the center that a committee from the Central Auditing Agency discovered the deficit and the existence of around 93 workers in the project without official documents or contracts. Shehata said that the project's budget of 8 million EGP (U.S. $1.4 million) per year dwindled to 1.5 million EGP (U.S. $250,000). He said there are profits of more than 600,000 EGP (U.S. $100,000) per annum and that the livestock station only earned 750,000 EGP (U.S. $127,000) in profit in two years. Regarding the plant tissue laboratory which was founded by Dr. Amin Okasha, Shehata said since the lab's inception it has sold plant tissue for only 600 EGP (U.S. $100), but its profits during the last three years reached 360,000 EGP (U.S. $61,000) and were predicted to reach one million EGP (U.S. $170,000) by the end of the year. Shehata said the laboratory is working on producing seed potatoes locally across Egypt. He said he stopped monthly losses of up to 10,000 EGP by the slaughter of calves and sales of meat at 46 EGP per kilo at the Directorate of Agriculture in Ismailia. Of the most important problems facing agricultural systems in Sinai, he said the biggest problem was lack of water. He said the canal is currently dry and three wells have been drilled recently, thus reclaiming 160 acres for the project. He said the East Kantara area has received 141 acres, 40 of which were planted with clover, 30 with olives and the rest with barely and wheat. Shehata said he needs nearly 9 million EGP for the completion of the largest training center in Ismailia, which will affect agriculture in the area considerably. Another of the problems facing projects in Sinai is the lack the investments to provide personnel with training and for the drilling of wells and proper fridge units, he said, adding that he thinks the annual budget should increase to 5 million EGP (U.S. $850,000).
