Iran: Economics, Missing Money, and Ahmadinejad v. Parliament

We have followed closely the President's contest with Parliament over his economic policies, but an article in Rooz Online indicates that this may be only the tip of the political iceberg. As our updates today are also indicating, there may be a showdown between Ahmadinejad and the Majlis over charges of mismanagement and, implicitly if not explicitly corruption.

Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani fired another shot yesterday:

The Majlis can consider judicial action against the administration’s refusal to provide it with reports. We have reminded the administration orally and in writing of the urgency of receiving reports, but unfortunately the reports have not arrived. The Economics Committee can investigate the issue and present its finding to the Majlis so that the necessary judicial steps can be taken to receive the requested reports.

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Larijani's rather bureaucratic statement rests upon a potentially explosive Parliamentary committee report on Ahmadinejad's privatisation policies:


“The money that the administration has deposited into the treasury from the proceeds of privatizing public entities is 47.8 percent less than the amount passed in the 2008 budget bill.” The reason for the drop in revenues is hinted at in another passage, criticising the administration for selling off companies without changing their management or structure. The firms are not being bought by private entities but by "quasi-governmental" groups who reap the profits of the change of ownership:

A large portion of the 190 thousand and 114 billion Rials of the purchased stock until October 2009 in the name of privatizing state-owner entities was essentially purchased not by private entities but by entities affiliated with state institutions that are not part of the private sector.

The report notes the distribution of the millions of dollars of stock in large state-owned enterprises to families, with the administration refusing to pay dividends on the stocks and, thus not deposited the proceeds of payments to the national treasury.

Even more provocative, however, is the report's citation of two cases involving companies in which the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps has a significant interest: the sale of the Anguran mine, the largest lead mine in the Middle East, and the recent sale of 51 percent of the Iranian Telecommunication Organization’s stock to the “Tose’e Etemad Mobin” corporation .