Official at Ministry of Social Solidarity embezzles over LE400K from World Bank program Takaful and Karama

CAIRO - 20 March 2022: The former director of the Rehabilitation Administration at the Ministry of Solidarity will be tried over seizing money from the World Bank’s Takaful and Karama cash transfer program in Egypt, according to a Saturday statement by the prosecution.

The director requested several cash transfers starting from May 2018, totaling L.E. 430,820 to fund fake evaluation programs and workshops. He produced forged papers to the administrators in the program to release the cash.

Five other defendants are included in the case: a chief specialist in the General Administration for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled at the Ministry of Social Solidarity, two social workers, a department head, a secretary. Their accusations are that they “did not preserve the funds of their employer and did not perform the work entrusted to them accurately” as they handed over the value of the transfers in cash via post to the former director, enabling him to embezzle the money.

Takaful and Karama conditional and unconditional cash transfer program is one of Egypt’s largest investments in human capital development. It was launched in 2015 with the support of a $400 million World Bank program. 

The program, run by the Ministry of Social Solidarity, provides conditional family income support aimed at increasing food consumption, reducing poverty, while encouraging families to keep children at school and providing them with needed health care.