Demagogues and rabble-rousers conduct a media campaign
against ICDS for receiving foreign fund

28/3/2005

Demagogues and rabble- rousers have been conducting a media campaign against ICDS for receiving foreign funds in support of its democratization projects in Egypt. It behooves us here, therefore, to set the record straight.

1-The major recipient of foreign funding is Mubarak's regime which receives in annual foreign an estimated $ 4 billion. That is during the last 24 years Mubark's regime has received some $ 100 billion most of which came from the United States but a significant portion came from Europe, and Japan. None of the out current detractors has ever questioned the regime as to where these funds went. Then opaqueness continues to surround the issue

2- The entire annual amount of foreign fund received by all 20,000 Egyptian NGOs does not exceed $40 million, which amounts to 1 % of the foreign funds that Mubarak's regime collected. Moreover, about 50% of these funds (allocated for NGOs), goes directly to the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies (ECES) which is chaired by Gamal Mubarak. Despite this striking fact, none of the demagogues who were exercised over the recent U.S grant to six Egyptian civil associations has seen fit to utter a single word about the ECES and its sources of funding.

3- Since its establishment in 1988, the Ibn Khaldun Center has over years, received funds from diverse international resources in support of its projects in which the donors were integral partners. All amounts of ICDS are declared annually and submitted to the Tax Department.

4- Most of the current allegations about the ICDS' sources of funding and expenditures had previously been raised during the last decade. During the trumped –up case against Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim, a thorough investigation of ICDS' accounts was carried out by the Egyptian Central Bank on the orders of the General Prosecutor. The resultant comprehensive report highlighted the fact that ICDS' Chairman Saad Eddin Ibrahim and his family were the major financial contributor to ICDS having put up of their personal money about one and half million Egyptian pounds to keep ICDS a float.

5- ICDS is proud of its transparency. It hides nothing and fears nothing. We urge the Egyptian state to follow our example and enlighten the Egyptian people about the enormous foreign fund it has received.

Saad Eddin Ibrahim