Abdullah Hamed-Cairo
Egypt's general budget figures for the current fiscal year show shocking figures, contradicting President Abdel Fattah El Sisi's speech at the Youth Conference last Saturday, of cutting the presidential budget and buying food on his own account as well as presidential staff.
The figures for the public services item in the budget - which includes the expenses of the presidency - a big jump increase in the current fiscal year by about 19% from the previous year.
The total expenditure on public services in this year's budget is about 756 billion pounds, and in the budget last year about 673 billion pounds (the dollar about 16.5 pounds).
The budget for public services, together with the presidency, includes legislative, executive and financial organs, as well as foreign affairs.
In response to accusations by army contractor Mohamed Ali that he had built a cemetery for his mother at the expense of the army that cost millions of pounds, Sisi had also shown villas and presidential palaces that cost hundreds of millions of pounds.
It was not only the current fiscal year that saw increases in presidential expenditures in return for cuts in subsidies, but in the past five fiscal years. These increases exceed the increases in spending on health, education, wages and subsidies.
Public services devour 49% of the budget, education allocations amount to 8%, while health allocations amount to 5% of the public budget.
According to official statistics, poverty rates in Egypt have risen to about 32.5% of Egyptians below the poverty line. Egypt's ranking in education has fallen to 110th globally, while the country ranks among the top 20 countries in the World Health Rankings.