Egypt’s administrative watchdog said on Sunday it had arrested Monofiya governor and businessmen for involvement in corruption.
It gave no further details.
The Supreme State Security Prosecutor’s Office will begin investigations on Monday with Hisham Abdel Basset, governor of Menoufia, as he was indicted.
Menoufia is located in the Nile Delta north of Cairo. The governor is the highest-ranking government official in each of the 27 governorates of Egypt, a ministerial rank.
Local media and newspapers said the arrest of Abdel Basset came on the eve of a visit by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to Monofiya on Monday.
Egypt suffers from corruption in the administrative body of the state and dropped its ranking in the Corruption Index of Transparency International for 2016, ranking 108 out of 176 countries after it was ranked 88th in 2015.
The government says it is not negligent in fighting corruption. Several senior officials have been prosecuted over the past few years on corruption charges.