Let’s look at the Egyptian constitution itself… and some examples around us… to try to understand the myth of “we do not mention numbers so that the enemy does not know our plans.” Is this right or wrong… even if we are talking about an enemy from whom we buy our own weapons… and we put our national security in his hands in energy…
When we say that transparency threatens national security, it sounds nice… but in reality, transparency is what protects security, not the opposite… when the people and institutions in the country are aware of where the money is going… and if there is real accountability… this will prevent corruption within the institution that is supposed to be the first line of defense for the state… meaning, simply, if the army spends correctly and works for the benefit of the country… why fear transparency… the secret lies in the fact that secrecy serves the corrupt and not the country…
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in the first amendment to the constitution in 2014, added a suspicious article to the constitution… article 203 states: “The Supreme Council of National Defense, chaired by the President of the Republic, is responsible for discussing the budget of the armed forces, and the budget is included in the state budget as a single item.”
The phrase “one item” means that we will give you a number… and you, the people, from your country’s resources, may not ask… I mentioned in previous articles that this number in accounts is incorrect… there is a completely hidden budget within the state that no one knows where it comes from or where it goes… for example, when purchasing a weapon for one and a half billion officially announced, no one knows if this extra billion has come out of the army’s budget as commissions or otherwise… and if so, who took this billion…
We had Law No. 89/1998 which was amended in 2016 stating: “The army is given the first priority in all government contracts through direct assignment”… and a decree in 2020 transferring the management of Nile lands (90,000 acres) from the Ministry of Irrigation to the army… and Decree No. 18 of 2022 which granted the army 36 islands in the Nile… and a decree in 2023 which allocated 938,000 acres to an organization affiliated with the Air Force…
All these laws were put in place to protect officials from revealing corruption, to prevent real accountability, and to prevent questions about who benefited from this money and how it was spent, and not to protect national security or military secrecy as stated.
In Law No. 182 included in the 2018 constitution, it was stated that “the Ministry of Defense is allowed to conduct all purchases through limited tenders or direct contracts without a competitive bidding process,” meaning: there is no price comparison, no transparency, no announcement of the presence of bribes or corruption, not even knowledge or discussion about whether the company that got the tender is indeed the best one, or if there are other more efficient companies that did not enter the competition for reasons related to interests with the entity that won the tender.
When laws allow direct contracts without competition, it means that you have opened the door to cliques, personal relationships, and deals made to serve individual interests, not for the benefit of the state. And that is why local industries do not evolve, because those who obtain the contracts are not the most competent, but those closest to the influential parties and private interests. This is the reason why military or civil projects managed by the army are not subjected to real competition or serious financial oversight.
The U.S. State Department mentioned in its report on transparency for 2024 that Egypt issues reliable financial statements, but when it comes to military and security institutions, neither the state institutions nor the parliament have knowledge or access to the budgets of those institutions.
Major General Mahmoud Khalaf stated in late 2013 that "the budget of the armed forces is a secret of the highest secrets of any state," and later Major General Hossam Sweilem stated that publicly discussing the army’s budget "threatens national security," adding that "there is no country in the world that discusses its military budget live on air."
This statement is completely untrue, and the reason is simple. Israel itself, despite being in open war with four countries in the region, and the whole world watching it, and facing missiles on its capital even today, announced that its defense spending for 2026 would increase by 42 billion shekels. Moreover, the Israeli Knesset voted on this increase publicly, and during the session, the details of the increase, which ultimately amounted to 30.8 billion shekels, were discussed.
South Korea is an eternal enemy of North Korea, and its neighboring country is a crazy enemy with nuclear weapons, and yet it is known that defense spending increased in 2025 by 7.5% to reach 44.8 billion dollars, and this budget was announced at a public press conference in front of everyone.
As for Ukraine, which has been at war for three years with Russia, the whole world knows that in October 2025 its budget was amended and defense spending was raised to about 70.86 billion dollars, and the Ukrainian Minister of Finance had to justify this increase before parliament, stating that it was necessary to confront Russia. Here we are talking about a country in a real war, and with whom? With Russia itself.
Germany, where Russian drones flew over its cities multiple times during 2025, also clearly and transparently announces its budget. China, which is engaged in a titanic struggle with the United States, also announces its budget figures. I can enumerate such examples until tomorrow.
If there is a reason not to publish budget information, then the last reason that can be mentioned is "national security," because in every country in the world, the army is held accountable and answerable, without causing any harm to its national security. This information, by its nature, can easily be obtained through training programs, military drills, and military purchases, and thus it is not hidden from enemies in any way. But it is, in fact, deliberately hidden from the people, so that no one asks where this money comes from and how it is spent.
Imagine, for example, if you discovered that there are revenues from a certain company that monopolizes the production of baby formula amounting to one billion pounds, and from this amount, about 700 million was spent for the benefit of the leaders of this company, while the workers there, the conscripts, do not exceed a salary of 900 pounds per month!
Or imagine if we learned that the army’s revenues are, for example, 100 billion, and only 10 billion of it was spent on armament? By the way, I had clarified in a previous post that Egypt ranks among the lowest countries in the region in terms of spending on armament.
Or if we found that the percentage of spending on research and development and technology does not exceed 10 million dollars only, how can we then believe those who claim we are building advanced local defense industries?
What the army does not announce is not the amount spent on armament, as that figure is known and clear to everyone, having reached about 16 billion dollars from 2010 to 2019. But what is not announced is the size of its revenues coming from civilian companies and factories, fuel stations, hotels, and other economic activities.
The United States provides an annual aid of 1.3 billion dollars to the Egyptian army, and it is well known where this money goes, because this information is provided to foreign parties. But when it comes to domestic matters… no one has the right to ask or know.
And why doesn’t Egypt disclose this budget?
The reason is simply that there is a huge economic empire that is not subject to any real oversight. There are more than seventy military companies operating in civilian areas within Egypt. The ironic paradox is that Egypt pledged to the International Monetary Fund to reduce the number of these companies in exchange for getting a loan. So the issue is not related to national security as stated, but to whom we listen to and whose decision we respect… the people or the IMF?
Some might say: we trust the armed forces. But I believe everyone remembers what happened in 2016 when Advisor Hisham Geneina was dismissed after revealing corruption facts worth 67.6 billion dollars. The 2016 report revealed that military corruption during just four years, from 2012 to 2016, amounted to 67.6 billion dollars.
Do you understand what this figure means? It equals about four times the value of Egypt's arms purchases over the last fifteen years. Meaning we could have purchased four times what we actually bought with that money that was wasted on corruption.
Take another example that trust is not an excuse for the absence of accountability. Major General Sameer Farag (former head of moral affairs at the Ministry of Defense, and former governor of Luxor) sold state-owned land to a businessman at prices far lower than their actual market value.
And take another example as well: Lieutenant General Mustafa El-Sayed (retired governor of Aswan) appointed a number of retired officers in the Nile Ports Administration with inflated salaries, as it was reported that salaries reached millions of pounds, not thousands.
And now we reach the most important question: if we announced the army's budget, would the enemy truly know our real strength?
The answer: no. Simply because you buy these weapons from other countries, and as I mentioned earlier, the figures you paid for these deals are known, as well as what you paid to the manufacturing countries. But what is unknown is how much actually left the Egyptian treasury, and into whose pockets those amounts went.
There is no contradiction between maintaining military secrets and announcing financial figures. Countries that possess real military secrets only hide tactical details, not the budget. No one can know from the published figures the type of weapon or the location of military bases. As for our case, the purpose of secrecy is not to protect the state, but to prevent people from knowing where the billions are spent and who is actually benefiting from them.
Transparency is not the danger to national security… the real danger is leaving public money without any accounting or oversight.
This is an AI-generated English translation. The original text is in العربية
PhD Researcher in Defense Contracting and Cooperation Policies
