CAIRO, Aug 27 (Aswat Masriya)- Egypt’s General Authority for Supply Commodities said on Friday that it bought 180,000 tonnes of Russian wheat in a tender.

Reuters quoted deputy chairman GASC Ahmed Youssef as saying that the wheat was purchased at an average price of $185.52 per tonne including cost and freight.

GASC received seven offers from suppliers for its wheat tender on Friday. Its the first tender since the resignation of Minister of Supply Khaled Hanafi on Thursday over corruption allegations.

Hanafi was largely criticised after details about an unusually high local wheat procurement figure prompted widespread fraud allegations from top industry officials, traders and parliamentarians. 

Local wheat suppliers in cooperation with government employees falsified documents to claim EGP621 million worth of grain, about 221,800 tonnes, that does not exist, according to a statement by the prosecution earlier in August.

The prosecution said  then that the defendants, who also include silo and storage area owners, unlawfully obtained EGP533 million using the forged documents.

Egypt bought nearly 5 million tonnes of local wheat from local suppliers in the latest procurement season which ended in June.

After Hanafi’s resignation, trade minister Tarek Kabil was assigned to conduct the affairs of the Ministry of Supply until the appointment of a new minister.