A National Postal Authority memorandum discussing State Council Opinion No. 166 of February 13, 2021, on payments to authority representatives at Post for Investment.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe Postal Authority\u2019s chair asked Post for Investment to recover the payments in line with that opinion. The company, however, rejected the request on the grounds set out in its memorandum and refused repayment. Judicial and parliamentary sources said a similar dispute occurred at Post for Distribution.<\/p>\nThe memorandum\u2019s concluding page, setting out the position taken in the dispute over implementing the legal opinion and recovering payments.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/svg><\/div>\n\u201cA constitutional and legal violation\u201d<\/h2>\n Emam tells Zawia3 that assigning State Council advisers to several entities within the Postal Authority and its subsidiaries violates both legal and constitutional requirements.<\/p>\n
The authority already has legal advisers, he says. MPs were therefore surprised by Farouk\u2019s decision authorising advisers seconded to the authority to attend the two companies\u2019 board meetings and receive payments from those companies.<\/p>\n
Emam argues that subsidiary boards are entitled to decide which advisers they use, while the authority and each company have separate legal personalities. In his view, the same person cannot be seconded to several of them simultaneously.<\/p>\n
He also argues that making subsidiaries bear the cost of advisers assigned to the authority conflicts with investment law and the rules governing secondments. Multiple assignments, he says, undermine the maximum-wage rules and should cease immediately.<\/p>\n
Some advisers cite their coverage by judicial legislation as a reason the wage ceiling does not apply, Emam says. He maintains that any such exception relates to judicial remuneration, not additional payments from executive bodies subject to the maximum-wage law.<\/p>\n
According to Emam, El Baz said she had been surprised by the arrangements and took urgent action to stop company payments to the advisers. He says she informed them that future attendance, if needed, would be solely as advisers to the Postal Authority, without additional remuneration. At the time of publication, MPs were awaiting implementation.<\/p>\n
<\/svg><\/div>\nAllegations of wasted public money<\/h2>\n Radi tells Zawia3 that his concerns extend from an advertising campaign costing millions to payments he alleges were improperly made to legal advisers.<\/p>\n
He cites Mohamed Ahmed Abboud\u2019s roles at the Postal Authority and two subsidiaries. Abboud had been at the authority since 2018, when he was no older than 35, Radi says. He alleges that Abboud received EGP 4 million in the most recent financial year across the three entities, citing an Accountability State Authority report referenced in the parliamentary request.<\/p>\n
Radi accuses the State Council president of tailoring the October 2024 decision so that his son and others could maintain multiple assignments and receive several payments.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cHow can the State Council president, whose son is seconded, add a clause permitting assignments to more than one organisation?\u201d \u2014 MP Mohamed Abdel Rahman Radi<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Radi says the decision should have been referred to the council\u2019s Fatwa and Legislation General Assembly to protect integrity and transparency, in keeping with the judicial principle of recognising situations that create an appearance of compromised impartiality.<\/p>\n
<\/svg><\/div>\nConflicts of interest<\/h2>\n Radi criticises Abboud\u2019s involvement in signing a memorandum to the communications minister that sought to prevent implementation of the opinion requiring recovery of payments. He says Abboud justified non-implementation on the basis that the requesting organisation did not accept the General Assembly\u2019s view.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince when is the law applied according to acceptance or rejection?\u201d Radi asks.<\/p>\n
He describes disorder in the secondment of legal advisers across ministries and government bodies, arguing that it places a substantial burden on their budgets. He says the State Council dominates these assignments and cites 12 advisers in Cairo governorate and six in the Local Development Ministry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy all these seconded advisers when every ministry and government authority has a legal department? Should we abolish those departments?\u201d he asks. If specialist judicial expertise is necessary, he argues, it should come from experienced senior judges rather than younger members with limited practical experience.<\/p>\n
Radi asks whether, after June 2025, Mohamed Abboud would continue receiving the same substantial payments or whether the assignment would end once the circumstances behind the EGP 4 million total in 2024 had changed. At publication, he was awaiting the communications minister\u2019s answer.<\/p>\n
<\/svg><\/div>\nA route to executive influence<\/h2>\n Nasser Amin, head of the Justice Support Foundation at the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession, tells Zawia3 that secondment is a financial inducement through which executive authorities seek influence over judges in the Middle East. He describes secondment and loan arrangements as among the serious problems facing Arab judicial systems.<\/p>\n
The 2014 Constitution recognised a practice used for years, including under former president Hosni Mubarak before the January 25, 2011 uprising, Amin says. Assigning judges as advisers to non-judicial bodies creates a dangerous dual role: the judge becomes part of both the judicial system and the administration being advised.<\/p>\n
\nIn Amin\u2019s assessment, this dual role opens the door to corruption and gives the executive a means of influencing judges, particularly State Council judges who hear citizens\u2019 disputes with the government.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
He calls for such arrangements to stop immediately and for the state to respect the Constitution. Judicial institutions should refrain from secondments and loans that, in his view, allow ruling authorities to compromise their independence.<\/p>\n
Amin says judges have long recognised the danger. He recalls recommendations from the first Arab Justice Conference in Beirut in 1999, organised by the Arab Center with the International Commission of Jurists and the Beirut Bar Association. The Beirut Declaration, he says, rejected appointments and secondments used to control judges.<\/p>\n
He also cites the 2003 Cairo Declaration on Judicial Independence, developed with the United Nations Development Programme, and the Egyptian Judges Club\u2019s first Justice Conference in 1986. Both, he says, called for an end to the practice. He argues that international standards repeatedly identify secondment as a threat to judicial independence and a route for executive influence.<\/p>\n
<\/svg><\/div>\nA \u201cblack hole\u201d in the justice system<\/h2>\n Mohamed Hamed Salem, a legal expert and lawyer before the Court of Cassation and Supreme Constitutional Court, tells Zawia3 that Article 239 imposed a clear legislative obligation. By the original publication date in February 2025, more than eleven years had passed since the Constitution took effect and roughly six since the five-year deadline expired.<\/p>\n
Salem questions why successive parliaments failed to issue the required law while advancing other legislation, including criminal-procedure legislation that did not face a comparable constitutional deadline.<\/p>\n
He describes assignments outside judicial bodies as a \u201cblack hole\u201d in the fabric of justice. Risks include compromised neutrality, conflicts of interest, erosion of the separation of powers and divided attention that can harm the administration of justice and litigants\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n
A central difficulty, he says, is reconciling the judge\u2019s judicial obligations with the expectations and practices of the administrative body to which the judge is assigned. The boundary between judicial duty and administrative employment becomes blurred.<\/p>\n
Salem argues that Articles 186 and 239 addressed these concerns, but successive parliaments\u2019 failure to act prevented the intended restrictions on assignments to non-judicial organisations.<\/p>\n
When a judge or judicial adviser works in an executive organisation, he says, expertise may be deployed under political or administrative pressure. This weakens professional safeguards, creates conflicts and can compromise confidence in judgments.<\/p>\n
The external role may also bring financial and career advantages greater than those available within judicial institutions, creating unequal opportunities for advancement and undermining transparency in the allocation of state resources.<\/p>\n
\nJustice depends on more than issuing judgments. It also depends on public confidence that rights are protected without political or administrative interference.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Salem calls on parliament to enact the secondment law urgently and review the mechanisms governing assignments, in line with constitutional requirements. He argues that protecting transparency, equality and the public interest is essential to administrative reform and a credible system of justice.<\/p>\n
Will parliament require the responsible authorities to complete the law? Will the prime minister and communications minister face further questioning? And will the payments deemed improper by the State Council\u2019s Fatwa and Legislation General Assembly be recovered? At the time this investigation was published, those questions remained unanswered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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