Egypt must adopt freedom of information laws that impose transparency on government spending, writes Kristin Debs and Sahar Aziz
In January 2013, an accident outside Cairo killed 19 army recruits and injured 100 others. Two months prior to that in January 2012 another train collision took the lives of 48 children in Assiut. These accidents could have been avoided if the LE5.5 million earmarked in 2012 to improve railway crossings had in fact been spent on them rather than disappearing in a web of graft.
The Egyptian media has reported that it has been unable to locate where this money has been spent or to find any evidence of improvements or renovation projects to the country's railways. How many more innocent people have to die before the Egyptian government makes meaningful efforts to stop the pervasive corruption that is plaguing Egypt?
Immediately following the train accident in November 2012, the minister of transport resigned and President Mohamed Morsi initiated an investigation to find the culprit responsible. A new transport minister was appointed to appease well-placed public anger. However, without systemic reforms that unlock the doors of secrecy on government spending and administration, these resignations and appointments are merely empty, symbolic gestures.
To find those responsible for the Assiut accident and to prevent future loss of life, it is imperative that Egypt adopt freedom of information laws that impose transparency on government spending. Such laws would require that transportation safety data be published in a format accessible to the Egyptian people. With information comes accountability and public monitoring, and these make all Egyptians safer. Freedom of information laws (FOIL), also known as access to information or right to information laws, give citizens the right to access all information in the government's possession, unless there is a compelling reason to prevent disclosure. FOIL is founded on the democratic principle that information about the country belongs to the people and that the people should be able to use this information to monitor their elected representatives. To date, over 90 countries have adopted such laws.
FOIL has already been successful in informing citizens of unsafe railway conditions and in preventing corrupt or improper use of government funds. For example, in India citizens use the country's Right to Information Act to identify railway crossings with frequent accidents. They then publish this information to inform others of high-danger crossings and to pressure the government to address unsafe conditions.
In the United States, the federal government automatically publishes investigation reports on major train accidents online that can be accessed by anyone. Again, these reports inform the public of the details surrounding train accidents and allow people to lobby the government for change if deemed necessary.
FOIL laws have also been used in other government sectors to stop the misuse of government funds. A report by the Egyptian-American Rule of Law Association, "Freedom of Information: A Cornerstone of Egypt's Democratic Transition", outlines how transparency in government spending in Uganda detected and put an end to major corruption in the education sector. The Ugandan government suspected that local officials were stealing money earmarked for public education. In response, the government decided to publish the amount of money it gave to schools and required that the schools publish their receipts, revealing that 80 per cent of the money earmarked for schools never reached its intended recipients.
This prompted school principals and the parents of schoolchildren in Uganda to inquire where the money was going. As a result of these inquiries, less money was stolen and within a few years such corruption was turned on its head, with 80 per cent of the funds now finding its way to the schools.
Currently, Egypt has no freedom of information law. On the contrary, several Egyptian laws prevent the disclosure of information related to government spending. Moreover, there is no law that ensures that Egyptians will have access to the results of government investigations into transportation disasters.
The good news is that Egypt's new constitution does recognise the fundamental right of citizens to access information in the government's possession, and a new draft freedom of information law is in the works.
While the details of this new law are still being debated, Egypt's parliament should ensure that this law guarantees citizens access to spending and safety data. Openness should be the norm, and secrecy the exception.
With more than 5,500 train accidents reported in Egypt between 2007 and 2011, access and monitoring of information could literally be a matter of life or death.
Kristin Debs, a member of the Egyptian-American Rule of Law Association (EARLA), is an Egyptian-Canadian lawyer providing consulting and programme evaluation services to the non-profit sector and government.
Sahar Aziz is an associate professor of law at Texas Wesleyan School of Law and president of EARLA.
© Al Ahram Weekly 2013
