There has Always Been Corruption in the Islamic Republic

RoozOnline

The repeated news reports about financial corruption during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency has resulted in angry responses by conservatives. Why these corruption reports are published on a daily basis, they ask.

Hamid-Reza Taraghi, a member of the Hezbe Motalefe (Islamic Coalition) Party’s central council told Shargh newspaper on Monday that “Corruption was not limited to Ahmadinejad’s administration.”

“Of all the oil that was sold only a hundred billion Rials of the sales could not be transferred. This is not corruption. Yes, when we ask people to step in to solve our economic problems, there are risk involved. The government must help to reduce the damage. Problems must be pursued at the root level, rather than putting all the blame on a single person,” he retorted to the reporter’s question.

In response to a question about the reasons for less corruption during pre-Ahmadinejad’s administrations, Taraghi said, “The media did not dare write such things during Hashemi Rafsanjani presidency. When an administration engages in larger financial work, it is natural that financial corruption too will increase. But percentage wise compared to the budgets, there was less corruption (during Ahmadinejad’s presidency.”

Elias Naderan, a right-wing Majlis member also spoke on the subject to Mehr News agency. “Unfortunately the special committee created to fight economic corruption has not acted on the roots of the problem. It did not have a deep understanding of corruption and only addressed peripheral issues and cases, or even the effects of corruption, rather than its roots. Instead of chasing Shahram Jazaeri, Babak Zanjani or others we must first understand why corruption takes place and correct the sources. We should have corrected these,” he said. Rather than investigating a few cases, the administration should look at the roots of corruption.”

Sarat website affiliated to the Revolutionary Guards also published a report on corruption and asked, “Why are there no discoveries of corruption during the reconstruction and second Khordad periods (references to Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami’s administrations)?” “News reports that have been created and generated during the last six months by officials, particularly in regard to some remarks by Mr. Rouhani have become the fodder for government media and the reformers, and seem to come from a determination to diverge from real issues,” it read. The author argues that there is a larger goal behind the exposure and publication of corruption charges against Ahmadinejad’s administration which is the elimination of the principlists from the national debates and conversation. He also accuses Rouhani’s administration to be on cahoots with the heads of the previous administrations – Rafsanjani and Khatami – in order to defeat their rivals in the next elections. “Can one believe that there was no corruption during that period (prior to Ahmadinejad) while Dr. Rouhani himself was the secretary of the national security council for 16 years?” the writer asks.

But the relatively frequent and considerable reports on corruption during Ahmadinejad’s administration that have been filling the media these days have surprised public opinion. On his last trip to the province of Hormozgan, Rouhani disclosed the uncovering of yet another corruption case. “When the three billion Toman corruption case was disclosed the public was shocked. But now there is a nine billion Toman corruption scandal, leaving the door open to other scandals that may be uncovered in future,” he said.

A few weeks ago, the head of Iran’s state inspectorate also announced a corruption case of twelve billion Toman in one of the provinces. “This person had been provided 530 million Toman for food reimbursements,” he said.

Just two days ago, Ahmad Khorram, the minister of roads during Khatami’s administration went even further and told reporters that national lands had been confiscated through forged documents and legislation had been passed to develop them, while nothing was ever done on the lands. ”Unfortunately the Majlis and other supervisory bodies have not done anything regarding these corruption and embezzlement cases. He also said that during pre-Ahmadinejad administrations corruption existed at the lower levels but during Ahmadinejad’s period it existed at the highest levels of government. “The names of some senior government officials and some senior government managers are on the list of corruption lawsuits,” he explained.