Sisi names military engineering official as new head of Egypt’s counter-corruption authority

CAIRO – 30 August 2020: Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on Saturday appointed Major General Hassan Abdel Shafi, a 57-year old military engineer, as a new head of the Administrative Control Authority, the country’s regulatory body responsible for enforcing laws and regulations within state bodies.

Abdel Shafi succeeds Major General Sherif Seif El Din, who has been in post for two consecutive terms since August 2018.

He served as the director of the Department of Military Engineers and chief of staff of the Armed Forces Engineering Authority.

The ACA has arrested dozens of officials over the past few years, mainly on bribery charges, including heads of districts, a governor and a deputy governor.

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has always stressed on applying strict measures within the government institutions to crack down any violation. He hailed the role played by the ACA in different occasions.

In October last year, Sisi has ordered publishing the results of the government's anti-corruption strategy to maintain transparency, announced the ACA in a statement.

The ACA report included the results of the first phase of the campaign over the period between 2014 and 2018 and the accomplishments achieved so far in the second phase for 2019/2022, the statement said.

The strategy helped activate the Government Financial Management Information System (GFMIS), in accordance with the rules of financial inclusion and the principle of transparency. This is in addition to allowing entities to know their financial position rapidly and accurately to improve the efficiency of public administration.

The government also created an online portable to monitor and evaluate the governmental services. Moreover, five conferences were held to disseminate awareness of the threats of corruption, expanding the scale of organizations and bodies participating in the strategy to 104 from 84 entities.

On July 31, 2019, Sisi asserted his keenness to establish a full database for Egyptians to fight corruption and help citizens live easier lives. In a session on digitization on the second day of the seventh edition of the National Youth Conference in the New Administrative Capital, Sisi clarified that all personal data are being dealt with as strictly classified.