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Upon writing the ninth article of the public fund squandering series , I have decided to publish it together with the documents and the only reason for doing this is to prove the truthfulness of the allegations revealed in “Abou Al-hool “ over the past seven months, and which denied by some people such as Mr. Sami Mahmoud, Head of international Tourism Sector and the one in charge of Egyptian Tourism Authority(ETA) Information Department.
Mahmoud has decreed the exclusion of Abou Al-hool newspaper from covering any events just because I formally wrote a letter to Minister of Tourism Zoheir Garranah complaining their bad work performance that finally harm public interest.
When reading the series of Al-Ezabi 's Manor, you will make sure that the offender is not only a person exploiting his power to achieve personal interests but also some of his assistants who decided to enjoy internally and externally availing El-Ezabi's era.
£ 32,000 is the value of producing and broadcasting of the finals of Match play Championship 2010 for Golf scheduled to be held from 5 to May16, 2010 at South Sinai-based " Taba Heights " resort owned by Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris who is Garanah Tours's partner. This value will be paid to the English company that organizes the Championship, JRW Group.
Could it be that the reason behind the ETA's President 's approval of this contribution is that the English company is unable to find a financing body that could film and broadcast the Championship from Egypt ? Or wasting Egypt 's money is easier? Or Did El-Ezabi decide to compliment Sawiris for being a partner of "Garranah Tours" ?
Also strange is that the same memo included another approval to pay an additional 38 thousand pounds dedicated for hosting two British photographers, who basically came to cover the Golf Championship, to be at the disposal of ETA for 3 days taking pictures In Cairo and Taba as if Egypt was depleted of photographers .. Where are the images and movies of the new international advertising company "JWT" and "DDP" Company ?!
Another anecdote made by ETA appeared when the Spanish Company of ROYAL VACACIONES EMBASSADOR TOURS, one of TUI Group's companies which is the partner of TRAFCO which the biggest of the Egyptian tourism companies owning 40 hotels in Egypt other than a fleet for transporting tourists and floating boats between Luxor and Aswan, requested ETA to share with 25 thousand Euros in the accommodation and flight cost of 150 persons including travel agents ,representatives of newspapers and Spanish media during the second half of the month of April 2010 in addition to 70 thousand pounds.
The request moreover encompassed another 70.000 Egyptian pounds for holding a warm dinner to the delegation apart from obtaining a free permission from Egyptian Antiquities Organization, or a 50% reduction on fees of visiting archaeological sites.
Upon the ETA head' request, Tourism Minister approved the travel of "Sama Solieman'' band composed of 6 people to hold an Egyptian night on March 14 on the sidelines of Moscow International Tourism Exhibition .
ETA decided to assume the international aviation tickets value as well as an appropriate pocket money for the band members , but the memorandum that Sami Mahmoud filed to to Amr El-Ezaby is the problem. After the approved amount of pocket money had been signed by the Minister, Sami Mahmoud raised the amount recognized in accordance with the financial regulations issued by Foreign Ministry to10 thousand dollars whereas the 3-day accommodation stay would be assumed by Moscow-based Egyptian Tourism Office .
Another episode of the tourist attaché in Germany-based Egyptian Tourism Office Tamer Marzouk 's series occurred in 8/3/2010. The memo included a strategy for implementing ad campaigns in common with 7 of major German tour operators including advertisements in tourist in return for a huge sum of money (1.198.088 Euros "15 million pounds" ) as an advertising contribution to the major of tourism companies in Germany.
I wonder what type of hosting ,including three meals , transportation and an accommodation at luxury hotels in Cairo and Hurghada for 6 days , approved by Sami Mahmoud on 3/2/2010 for a Turkmenistan's delegation consisted of 5 members in return for only 100,000 pounds in addition to the 6 –day hosting of Iraqi Tourism Minister together with 6 persons on 10/12/2009 in Cairo and Alexandria at a cost of 165 thousand pounds?!
In its work strategy , ETA fully authorized foreign offices' managers to make contracts with public relations firms to play roles which were once played by those managers themselves not long ago. However, we find that ETA made a contract with a public relations company "WEBER SHANDWICK" throughout the "JWT" company responsible for international publicity campaigns for the Authority.
This duality of contracts made by both the publicity company and Foreign tourism Offices seeks an explanation from ETA's chairman especially Egyptian Tourism Authority pays a 340,000 dollar annual fees for the previously mentioned public relations firm .
I was extremely confused by ETA's chairman's approval of a memorandum filed by International Tourism Sector head on 1/2/2010 in which the latter requested the Authority to pay 30 thousand pounds for the 6-day hosting of a British female journalist and a photographer at five-star hotels on15/2/2010 in Cairo and Alexandria to write about Egyptian railway as the second oldest state in the world to establish railways. Did not the journalist and the photographer hear of the accidents that harvested dozens of lives in recent years and caused two Egyptian ministers to resign ?!!
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