Fired metro chairman defends himself

In an interview with the privately-owned Al-Shorouk on Saturday, Abdallah Fawzy, the head of the underground metro company, who was fired from his job earlier this week, explained that he fought for the metro to stay open and operational despite ongoing troubles.

Fawzy was appointed in late 2012 to head the Egyptian Company for the Management and Operations of the Underground Metro, following ongoing strikes by metro workers. The decision to remove him from his position came after several complaints about metro conditions and a drop in metro revenues, which had allegedly fallen to LE100 million.

Fawzy explained to Al-Shorouk that his main objective was to keep the metro working despite all external troubles and subsequent curfews, which were behind the drop in revenues, especially after the closure of two stations in the aftermath of the violent dispersal of Brotherhood sit-ins in August.

"The police focused on fighting terrorism and on securing the stations from outlaws, to guarantee the safety of passengers and challenge any obstacles that may stop the metro from working. But this came to the detriment of monitoring the stations against acts of theft and harassment," he was quoted as saying.

Fawzy added that despite complaints over the lack of cleanliness in the stations and within the metro, he made sure that there was a daily cleaning shift after the metro working hours. He also denied charges of procuring spare parts that are below standards, explaining that he used the usual channels of procurement to obtain original spare parts.

The former chairman explained that the metro was conceived to serve some 90,000 people in 1987, which has since skyrocketed to 3.5 million passengers. "It is a terrifying increase," he was quoted as saying, adding that any development work won't be easily felt by passengers.

Media also reported that his superiors complained of his dictatorial position at work.

Upon the minister of transportation's decision to fire Fawzy, Al-Shorouk reported discontent among employees in the company, as they recognized the former chairman's ongoing call to raise the price of metro tickets in order to solve the drop in revenues. They also saw that Fawzy was reprimanded for committing to pay a LE300 bonus for all employees as an incentive for working in difficult security conditions.

Fawzy is temporarily replaced by Ali Fadaly, until the General Assembly of the company convenes to select a new chairman. Upon his appointment, Fadaly pledged to restructure employees' and workers' salaries and to improve services to passengers.