CAIRO, Sept 5 (Aswat Masriya) - Egypt's public prosecutor ordered the detention of members of committees responsible for receiving and examining of wheat supplied to silos in Fayoum.

Prosecution investigations revealed that 31,000 tonnes of wheat valued at EGP 87million were missing from the quantity supplied to the silos.

The prosecution is currently investigating a number of defendants on  charges of corruption in a local wheat procurement.

The case involves parliamentarians and government officials. 

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