Government-by-Government Assessments: Egypt
During the review period, the government made its budget documents widely and easily accessible to the public, including online. Information on debt obligations was publicly available online, except state-owned enterprise debt. Budget documents did not include allocations to military state-owned enterprises, nor were audit reports for major state-owned enterprises made public. Publicly available budget documents did not specify expenditures to support executive offices. The information in the budget was generally reliable, but incomplete. Egypt’s supreme audit institution did not meet international standards of independence and its reports were not public. The government specified in law or regulation and appeared to follow in practice the criteria and procedures for awarding natural resource extraction contracts and licenses. The government did not always make natural resource extraction awards publicly available. The sovereign wealth fund had a sound legal framework but did not disclose its source of funding or general approach to withdrawals.
Egypt’s fiscal transparency would be improved by:
* Making information on state-owned enterprise debt publicly available;
* Including in its budget documents all revenues and expenditures, including those for remaining off-budget accounts, executive offices, and allocations to, earnings from, and debts of state-owned enterprises;
* Ensuring the supreme audit institution meets international standards of independence;
* Ensuring the supreme audit institution carries out audits of the government’s executed budget and makes its reports publicly available within a reasonable period;
* Consistently making basic information on natural resource extraction awards publicly available; and
* Disclosing the sovereign wealth fund’s source of funding and general approach to withdrawals.
Source: U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs
