Last updated:

January 28, 2025

A Narrative of Economic Murder/ Behrouz Kazemi

This is not a complete sentence and cannot be translated accurately. Please provide a complete sentence for translation.Behrouz-Kazemi
Behrouz Kazemi

Everyone was in debt to each other. Contractors to material suppliers, employers to workers, and the government to all of them! Sometimes even more distressing news reached their ears:

  • The old seller of the electrical market committed suicide!

  • The contractor had a heart attack and passed away due to his checks not being cleared.

  • The reputable manager of such and such electrical contracting company has been imprisoned due to financial debt.

Slowly, the volume of bitter news increased. The CEO of a well-known company had become so poor that he once shamefully asked me for a small amount of money to buy gas and go home. When we talked to contractors and debtors, almost everyone believed that neither the sanctions nor the sabotage of powerful groups had much of an impact on this tragedy. Almost everyone agreed that the only cause of this situation was “corrupt government”.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government began its work with numerous promises and widespread support from powerful institutions. Perhaps during the entire period of the Islamic Republic, no president had as much support from the first person of the nation as Ahmadinejad did during his first term. However, those hopes and promises did not materialize and by the end of his first term as president, during the golden era of high oil prices, the financial demands of contractors from the government were piling up. The wave of increasing debt and the widespread fear of contractors for an uncertain future were the most visible things during that time. During those years, things had reached a point where one hot summer day, around a hundred CEOs of a large electricity contracting company gathered in front of the Ministry of Energy and threatened to go on strike, resulting in a widespread power outage in Tehran; because these same contractors were working day and night with their personal capital to provide electricity to the capital of Iran. Now, they were only satisfied with

But the most bitter news of those years was that the widespread corruption and financial mismanagement of Ahmadinejad’s government took the lives of several people, and unfortunately, this was the only issue that was rarely addressed. People were dying who, until a few weeks ago, were employed and were entrepreneurs and economists, but the government, instead of fixing the situation, was busy with profitable and rent-seeking businesses.

Now, after years, the documents of widespread corruption during Ahmadinejad’s era are being revealed piece by piece, and it becomes clear which powerful government companies were sold with extensive fraud and which astonishing commissions and brokerage fees were exchanged. However, the bitter irony of the situation was that some of these active companies, after being granted the rent and due to the incompetence of new management, went bankrupt.

The situation was getting worse day by day and the ill-gotten wealth of the new managers was increasing. Demands had fallen to such a level that we often heard, “If only they would eat, but at least do their job properly!”

The people had suffered severe psychological damages and public demands had decreased to a minimum. The price of oil was increasing day by day and poverty was widespread. Incompetent and irresponsible managers had led the country towards paralysis. The people were going through bitter days and there was a growing debt that added to previous debts. Companies were closing one after another. Chinese goods had taken the place of Iranian products and industrialists were under immense financial pressure. Sellers were selling Chinese goods to companies at high profits, but their initial happiness turned into mourning due to non-payment of financial debts by customers. A series of debts had occurred: importers were demanding from market sellers, sellers had a large number of bounced checks from contractors, and contractors were indebted to banks and others.

The era of tragedy has come to an end and we have distanced ourselves from some of the financial mismanagement of the third millennium miracle. Companies, although weak, have gradually become active again. The volume of bounced checks has decreased and job advertisements for specialized personnel in the electricity industry have increased. The volume of financial embezzlement cases is decreasing and lost credits are being recovered; but as a witness to those bitter years, my mind is preoccupied with the question, “Are the incompetent managers held accountable in court for the lost lives, suicides, and heart attacks? Does anyone think that the result of the corrupt government and financial mismanagement of that era was the loss of several lives?”

Created By: Admin
August 23, 2016

Tags

Administrative corruption Behrouz Kazemi فساد corruption Corruption in Iran Economic murder Monthly magazine issue number 64 Monthly Peace Line Magazine