CAIRO, May 23 (Aswat Masriya) – Egypt’s Supreme State Security Prosecution summoned the country's former top auditor, who had made allegations of massive government corruption, to question him over an accusation that he disrupted public peace and security.

The prosecution notified Hisham Geneina, the former head of Egypt's Central Auditing Organisation (CAO), that he must appear before it on Tuesday to be questioned on a charge of promoting false news about the size of corruption in government bodies, which disrupted public order, his lawyer told Aswat Masriya.

In March, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued a presidential decree to remove Geneina from his post as CAO head he told Egyptian media outlets that the size of governmental corruption during the period between 2012 and 2015 was EGP 600 billion (around $67 billion). He said that his statements were based on findings of a detailed study conducted by the CAO. 

The CAO monitors financial institutions and government bodies and falls directly under the jurisdiction of the presidency. 

The official gazette reported, after the presidential decree was issued, that "the removal is based on a statement from national security prosecution following its investigation into Geniena's statements about the cost of corruption in Egypt being EGP 600 billion, which carried false data."

In December 2015, Sisi had ordered that a fact-finding committee be formed to probe the corruption allegations. The committee, which included cabinet ministers, said in conclusion to its investigation that the top auditor's statements and the CAO’s study were “inaccurate”, “exaggerated” and lacked "credibility".

In January, the public prosecutor issued a gagging order banning media coverage of the investigation.

In July 2015, Sisi issued a law allowing himself to depose the heads of the state's regulatory and auditing agencies, including CAO and the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE). 

Egypt ranked 88th out of 168 countries on Transparency International's 2015 corruption perceptions index which ranks countries and territories based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be. 

State corruption is one of the causes believed to have triggered the 2011 Uprising , which led to the ouster of Honsi Mubarak as president after he ruled the country for nearly 30 years.