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Egypt denies laying off large number of public servants to reduce spending

October 19, 2019 at 12:42 pm

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi meets with Mustafa Madbouli, the then Housing Minister in Cairo, Egypt on January 3, 2017 [Egyptian President Office / ApaImages]

The Egyptian government denied on Friday reports regarding plans to lay off a large number of public servants, as part of a plan to reduce public spending, a statement revealed.

The statement, which was posted on the government’s Facebook page, stated “there are no plans to lay off any of the state’s employees.”

According to the statement, the government is to develop the performance of the administrative apparatus, in order to improve the quality of the services offered to the public.

Egyptian prime minister, Mustafa Madbouly, has told the parliament that the administrative apparatus suffers from inflation, explaining that there are five million public servants, but only 40 per cent of them are needed by the state.

Opinion: Egypt has resorted to framing teachers as terrorists

Activists have reported public servants as stating that the government is preparing to relinquish a large number of staff, under the pretext of affiliation with terrorist groups.

This was viewed as the start of making public servants redundant, over claims of opposing the ruling regime.