President of Egypt’s National Railways Authority Medhat Shosha blamed the media channels and newspapers for underlining the corruption case related to the German lathes, saying that the case is old. He added that the officials who involved in this case have been referred to trial, saying that he has no information about what was published over corruption in the authority’s medical center.
He added, in an interview with “Arabs Today”, that the authority managed to end the random sale of scrap, saying that they formed a committee from experts and representatives of Central Auditing Organization to estimate the market price. He said that Military production plants have agreed with the Authority to purchase 13,500 tons of scrap last Saturday.
He stressed that it is very difficult to manufacture the trains’ tractors inside the country due to lack of necessary technology, on the contrary of the other trains’ cars which are made locally. He added, “The share of the railway from the transport of goods has declined due to the fact that owners of companies and importers want to deliver goods to warehouses.”
He added, “The corupt deal of the German lathes, published by some newspapers, is not new case, as its dates back to 2006, and indeed there were some defects in those lathes, while we turned to German experts to repair them.” He added the officials who involved in this deal have been referred to trial.
He stressed that the process of developing the railway continues, noting that the development works witnessed in a large number of railway stations will end at the beginning of 2018. He added, “During the meeting of the Minister with the leadership of the authority, he called for giving priority to the third class passengers, and improving the services provided to them.”
He stressed that the authority is seeking during the coming period to contract with giant companies to supply train tractors.