A private tourist company on Sunday (September 24th) filed a complaint with Egyptian parliamentary speaker Ali Abdel-Aal, asking him to investigate five lawmakers on grounds of profiteering, Egypt’s Ahram Online reported Tuesday.
The company accused the lawmakers of selling hajj travel visas they had received from the government to give to citizens for free.
The company alleged the five received the Saudi travel visas from the government "to give them to citizens free of charge, and not to profit from selling them to private tourist companies" so they could perform the hajj.
The company's director said one lawmaker made up to three million Egyptian pounds ($170,000) in profit from selling 57 pilgrimage visas to the company.
"The other MPs also sold the company dozens of free visas," the director said, adding that "as this is a form of corruption, the company found it necessary to inform parliament's leadership of these shady practices".
The director said the visas were granted to lawmakers with the stipulation that they give them free to constituents in their own districts or to professional syndicate and labour union members who could not afford the price of a visa.
"While they gave some of these visas to syndicates, they set aside others to profit from in terms of selling them to private tourist companies," said the company director.
Abdel-Aal has decided to open an investigation into the accusations, Ahram Online said.
