CAIRO — The Egyptian Ministry of Religious Endowments is being plundered. The ministry has been fighting this controversial practice since 2012, when Talaat Afifi was appointed minister, with the discovery of a quarter billion Egyptian pounds ($31 million) in losses and 5,000 fake civil servants in these nonexistent mosques.

These establishments are vacant premises bearing the name of a mosque. No prayers or any religious rites are practiced in them; they are rather constructed to justify appointing salaried workers paid by the Ministry of Religious Endowments. In this context, 50 fake mosques were discovered on Sept. 27 in Minya governorate, each employing three salaried workers since 2009 in return for bribes.

In February 2009, the Public Funds Investigation Department summoned a number of ministry employees and members of monitoring bodies who filed notices and complaints against officials at the Ministry of Religious Endowments, accusing them of taking bribes and kickbacks for registering nonexistent mosques and prayer rooms.

In the same year, the Public Funds Investigation Department reported corruption cases involving 50 mosques in Monufia governorate.