Egypt's top auditor Hisham Geneina has been dismissed by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi with immediate effect, hours after authorities said his comments on state corruption were "inaccurate".
Geneina, 60, head of the Central Auditing Organisation -- a state agency tasked with overseeing the government's finances -- was dismissed by a presidential decree yesterday, effective immediately, Egyptian TV reported.
State Security Prosecution has released an official statement, saying the top auditor's comments made in 2015 on state corruption were "inaccurate" and included "repeated count of incidents of corruption over the years".
Geneina ignited an uproar in Egypt as he said in newspaper interviews last month that corruption has cost the country tens of billions of dollars over the past four years.
He claimed to have uncovered billions of dollars-worth of corruption, involving some of the country's top institutions such as the police, intelligence agencies and the judiciary.
Geneina said that corruption in the administrative sector has reached about USD 75 billion.
El-Sisi had formed a fact-finding committee which accused Geneina of "defamation of state apparatuses". It said that Geneina's statements misled the public, lacked credibility and exaggerated the numbers lost due to corruption.
Hesham Badawy, deputy head of the central agency, was appointed charge d'affaire of the post.
The State Security Prosecution described Geneina's comments as "inaccurate".
"The data and numbers provided by the formed committee about corruption were not accurate as well and contains incidents that took place during 2008 to 2012 and not 2015," a statement by the prosecution said.
The prosecution further accused Geneina of power misuse by collecting and keeping important information and documents on corruption, and that it was not within the CAO authority to investigate corruption.
The prosecution decided to ban Geneina, who was appointed by ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2012.
