“این عکس یک پروفایل است”

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Saeed Aganji

Corruption is one of the main obstacles to the development of countries. According to the latest report from Transparency International, Iran ranks 130th in the “Corruption Perceptions Index” among 168 countries that have been evaluated. This means that corruption runs deep in Iranian society, including in administrative, economic, and executive sectors.

Usually, economic corruption is not directly derived from the law (although the law may have flaws that allow corrupt individuals to take advantage); rather, it is the result of not following the law.

When a government company decides to award a project or sell a portion of its assets, it must use the laws related to bidding and auction. However, relationships cause certain individuals or institutions to take advantage of benefits known as rent-seeking.

The disclosure of government officials’ financial statements and the figures that are presented to the public has caused widespread doubt in society about the corruption of government officials, without a doubt. The discussion of receiving astronomical salaries, as it has posed a serious challenge to the Rouhani government, can also ensnare other governments, military institutions, and governments.

With the disclosure of salary slips, the government was forced to dismiss several senior bank managers and, upon the order of the President, a three-person committee was formed by Jahangiri, the first deputy, to investigate the salary slips of the managers. During the investigations, the parliamentary deputy of the President said, “Less than 50 managers receive abnormal salary slips.”

Sadreddin Hosseini, the head of the National Development Fund of Iran, was one of the well-known figures who was dismissed following the disclosure of these financial documents. However, one of the people who was able to obtain a currency exchange license in 2010 through his relationship with Hamid Pourmohammadi Golsefidi, the then deputy governor of the Central Bank, was Sadreddin Hosseini. Pourmohammadi Golsefidi is one of the defendants in the 3 trillion case, which is still ongoing in court. However, he still held the position of “Deputy Vice President for Strategic Planning and Supervision” in President Rouhani’s government. Interestingly, his nephew, with a GPA of 14, was appointed by Mr. Sadreddin Hosseini at the National Development Fund as the “Director of Legal Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs”.

The opposition movement against the government’s disclosure of the legal salaries of Rouhani’s government officials has prompted the government to react and expose the illegal earnings and corruption of the previous government. This is just the beginning of the story, as now the discussion of the salaries of military forces, especially the commanders of the Revolutionary Guards, is being raised.

If the corruption of government and military institutions is brought up in the conflict between the government and its opponents, and is based on the disclosure of documents against each other, there is a high probability that government and military institutions, especially the Revolutionary Guards, will be defeated in this game.

But these numbers are very insignificant compared to the corruption in other sectors, institutions, and organizations; when hundreds of millions are pocketed by intermediaries for receiving and assigning a project, it indicates the organized corruption in the country’s executive, administrative, and military institutions. Projects that are assigned to small and large companies in the Khatam al-Anbiya Garrison of the Revolutionary Guards start from tens of billions and only the profits of intermediaries in these transactions start from hundreds of millions and end in billions. These intermediaries can be close relatives or acquaintances of these Revolutionary Guards commanders.

The executive and military apparatus, by reemploying individuals who are involved in economic and political corruption, has shown that it has no serious intention to fight against corruption in Iran. Most of the statements made by officials of the Islamic Republic system regarding corruption are just slogans. When corruption cases of the officials and their close associates are exposed, instead of taking action, they are met with tolerance and leniency. Or they delay the handling of such cases to the point where they are forgotten. In this regard, we can refer to the economic corruption of the brother of the Speaker of the Parliament and the Judiciary, which was brought up during the conflict between the government and the previous parliament, but we witnessed no legal action taken.

The issue of corruption in executive institutions is not specific to the current government and has existed in all governments, and it is an undeniable issue. Lack of strong and effective oversight over executive, administrative, and military institutions, lack of independence of the judicial system, absence of non-governmental oversight institutions, and also creating obstacles and pressure from the executive branch on oversight and inspection institutions have led to the organized spread of corruption in the country.

Free media coverage of corruption and society’s reaction to these issues are influential factors that can reduce corruption. In fact, if the media can freely address issues such as institutional, executive, and military corruption and publish existing documents to inform the public, it will lead to society’s awareness and reaction to these issues. This will also force the government to take legal action against corrupt individuals in order to prevent larger crises. However, in Iran, due to restrictions and surveillance by security and judicial authorities, this is not possible. Issues such as legal salaries that were published by the media did not result in any action against the media, and received widespread feedback from society. This was because these media outlets are dependent on the government and benefit from security privileges.

A few days ago, the Minister of Health in Finland was forced to resign. During his tenure, he had made three phone calls to his wife, who was in Canada, at the government’s expense. When this matter was brought up by the media, the public reacted strongly and this led to the minister’s resignation.

If the government of Iran had serious intentions in fighting corruption, it would not restrict the media and would strengthen the free flow of information, as well as non-governmental oversight and inspection bodies, and the judicial system would independently and without tolerance or leniency towards high-ranking officials and their associates, take legal action against them.

Unfortunately, the monopoly of power and restrictions imposed by it have resulted in high-ranking officials’ corruption not being exposed by the media and not facing legal consequences. Even if an individual is involved in corruption, they are protected by the government’s immunity.

Sources:

The Fars and IRNA news agencies.