Gawdat al-Malt (born February 1935, Arabic: جودت الملط) is a retired

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

ian judge and former head of the State Council (

Administrative Court An administrative court is a type of specialized court on administrative law, particularly disputes concerning the exercise of public power. Their role is to ascertain that official acts are consistent with the law. Such courts are usually co ...

) and former chairman of the top

public finance Public finance refers to the monetary resources available to governments and also to the study of finance within government and role of the government in the economy. Within academic settings, public finance is a widely studied subject in man ...

and

anti-corruption Anti-corruption (or anticorruption) comprises activities that oppose or inhibit corruption. Just as corruption takes many forms, anti-corruption efforts vary in scope and in strategy. A general distinction between preventive and reactive measur ...

watchdog, the Central Audit Organization (1999 and 2011, Arabic:الجهاز المركزي للمحاسبات).

Early career

Al-Malt had a quiet career as a judge, joining the State Council in 1956, after graduating with a law degree from

Alexandria University Alexandria University () is a public university in Alexandria, Egypt. It was established in 1938 as a satellite of Fouad University (the name of which was later changed to Cairo University), becoming an independent entity in 1942. It was known as ...

. He completed his PhD in legal studies from

Cairo University Cairo University () is Egypt's premier public university. Its main campus is in Giza, immediately across the Nile from Cairo. It was founded on 21 December 1908;"Brief history and development of Cairo University." Cairo University Faculty of En ...

in 1967, and rose through the ranks of the State Council becoming a judge in the Higher Administrative Court (1985), vice head of the State Council (1986), and eventually head of the State Council in 1998.

Head of CAO

In 1999, Al-Malt was appointed by of

Hosni Mubarak Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011 and the 41st Prime Minister of Egypt, prime minister from 1981 to ...

as head of CAO. There his career as a public figure started, where he annually presented the CAO report on the public budget in front of

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

. In 2005, he criticised the lack of transparency in public accounts obfuscating the deficit, and the high level of public debt. By 2010, Al-Malt was criticising government policies in his parliamentary address, blaming Prime Minister

Ahmed Nazif Ahmed Nazif (, ; born 8 July 1952) served as the prime minister of Egypt from 14 July 2004 to 29 January 2011, when his cabinet was dismissed by President Hosni Mubarak in light of a popular uprising that led to the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. N ...

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

for higher poverty rates (Rising from 20% to 23.4% in two years), as well as out of control

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the average price of goods and services in terms of money. This increase is measured using a price index, typically a consumer price index (CPI). When the general price level rises, each unit of curre ...

(Rising from 5% in 2005 to 16.2% in 2009).

2011 Revolution and resignation

During a last ditch reshuffle to keep Hosni Mubarak in power in the face of the 2011 Revolution, Al-Malt was falsely reported to have been appointed as

Minister of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfolio ...

on 31 January 2011 because of his anti-corruption reputation. However, Al-Malt denied the claim, and the post was filled by another person on that day. Within days of Mubarak's ouster, Al-Malt stated that he had sent Mubarak, his cabinet, and parliament 1000 reports between 2004 and 2010 recording various infractions by the Nazif cabinet including embezzlement of public funds, misuse of state-owned land, and ignoring the public procurement law. A month later, Al-Malt announced that he would be submitting these reports to the

attorney general In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

. However, these reports have never been made public, while Al-Malt was later blamed by a rights organisation for stifling access to information that would allegedly have been vital in prosecuting Mubarak for corruption. This led the anti-corruption group Censors Against Corruption, comprising former and then-current senior members of the CAO, to lodge formal complaints against him with the attorney general.

References

1935 births Living people Egyptian judges Egyptian politicians {{Egypt-politician-stub