ERRADA’s Board of Trustees Reconsti

A recent Prime Ministerial Decree No. 1652 of 2019[1] published earlier this month brought about the reconstitution of the board of trustees of the Central Unit for the Review and Simplification of Procedures (the “Central Unit”) for the Egyptian Regulatory Reform and Development Activity (“ERRADA”), such that it falls directly under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister with a much more expanded and economically specialized membership encompassing the ministers of Finance and of Planning, Monitoring, and Administrative Reform; the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt;  the Chair of the Federation of Egyptian Industries; the Chair of the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce;  and the Chair of the Consultants at the Cabinet, in addition to others whose memberships were already stipulated in previous related decisions (including the Minister of Investment and International Cooperation; the Minister of Trade and Industry; and the Chairperson of the Financial Regulatory Authority). Set in place to fill the void created by the lack of periodic and planned review of legislation in Egypt, ERRADA (sometimes misspelled as Erada and IRADA) was established in 2008 to “support the government’s efforts to build a regulatory management system to review and streamline business related regulations . . . . based on a dialog between public and private institutions and civil society,” as stated on the initiative’s website.[2] ERRADA’s ultimate aim has been the enhancement of the business environment in Egypt by addressing several regulatory challenges, among which are the multiplicity and overlap of complex and/or ambiguous regulations; the difficulty in identifying implicitly repealed decisions and decrees; the overlap of authorities issuing regulations; the inconsistency of drafting cycles across ministries; the absence of a mechanism to assess the economic impact of new regulations; and a general inaccessibility to regulations. To that effect, ERRADA’s tasks have involved the tracking and reviewing of laws and regulations, particularly through the creation of an inventory of business-related regulations; the systematic reviewing of these regulations; the introduction of functional regulatory impact assessments; and the issuing of recommendations to streamline reviewed regulations and to resolve contradictions that might be present among existing regulations. Among the initiative’s notable contributions to date is the creation of an electronic registry of the inventoried legislation, which was made available to public with the objective of simultaneously cutting down costs for its users from citizens and businesses (rather than them paying for access to commercially run databases) and collaterally enhancing their compliance. It is worth noting that ERRADA was developed in accordance with international best practice. Institutionally, units were set up in participating ministries (which initially numbered 11) while the Central Unit within ERRADA provided these ministerial units with support and technical advice. Methodologically, guidelines from other countries – such as the UK, Poland, and the Czech Republic – were adapted to the local context.[3] However, oversight over ERRADA has changed hands several times since its inception. Originally, the initiative was under the umbrella of the Sub-cabinet Committee for the Productive Sector, and the competent minister in charge of it then was the Minister of Trade and Industry. Yet a series of decisions were passed that oscillated the administration of the initiative back and forth among different ministers – including the ministers of Finance,[4] of Investment,[5] and of Industry, Trade and Small Industries – before a Prime Ministerial Decree published in April of this year reorganized ERRADA’s structure yet one more time, bringing it under the umbrella of the Sub-cabinet Economic Committee and under the direct administration of the Prime Minister, who now has the power to form and appoint the initiative’s board of trustees and executive director.[6] Hence, despite potential issues that may arise from such a move, having the initiative under the centralized administration of the Prime Minister could help in addressing possible inter-ministerial tensions/rivalry and the need for comprehensive regulatory reform (even if in theory) while avoiding a potential suspension of the initiative’s work during cabinet reshuffles, as had been previously the case in 2012 when the initiative suffered from a transitional slump.[7]   [1] Prime Ministerial Decree No. 1652/2019 reconstituting the board of trustees of the Central Unit for the Review and Simplification of Procedures for the Egyptian Regulatory Reform and Development Activity (ERRADA) under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, Official Gazette, Issue No. 28 (cont.), 11 July 2019. [2] ERRADA: Egyptian Regulatory Reform &  Development Activity, available through this link. [3] Abdel Gawad, S. F. (2013), “The Egyptian Experience in ‘Better Regulation’ Reform”, available through this link. [4] Prime Ministerial Decree No. 436/2011 transferring the supervision of the Egyptian Regulatory Reform and Development Activity (ERRADA) to the Sub-cabinet Committee for Monitoring Economic Performance headed by the Minister of Finance and formed by virtue of Prime Ministerial Decree No. 293/2011, Egyptian Gazette, Issue No. 70 (cont.), 26 March 2011. [5] Prime Ministerial Decree No. 620/2013 transferring the supervision of the Central Unit for the Review and Simplification of Procedures for the Egyptian Regulatory Reform and Development Activity (ERRADA) to the Sub-cabinet Economic Committee formed by Decree No. 910/2012, Egyptian Gazette, Issue No. 134 (cont.) (b), 11 June 2013 [6] Prime Ministerial Decree No. 998/2019 restructuring the Central Unit for the Review and Simplification of Procedures for the Egyptian Regulatory Reform and Development Activity (ERRADA), Official Gazette, Issue No. 16 (bis) (h), 22 April 2019. [7] cf. Abdel Gawad (2013), OECD. (2013), Regulatory Reform in the Middle East and North Africa: Implementing Regulatory Policy Principles to Foster Inclusive Growth.