Moscow: 10th governmentˈs job is over, but dimensions of financial corruption of Mahmoud Ahmadinejadˈs government still make top headlines in Iranian media every day.
One day there is news on millions and billions of cash gifts granted by the former head of the Social Welfare head Saˈeid Mortazavi, who was also a former Tehran prosecutor and the other day the 30 billion rial (one billion US dollar) embezzlement in which Ahmadinejadˈs relative and closest ally in his government, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaˈie is highly involved in it.
According to IRNA, The Iran Insurance file, known as the Fatemi (Street) circle case, too, is related to the statesmen nurtured during Ahmadinejadˈs tenure; to an extent that the Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jaˈfari-Dowlatabadi has announced that Ahmadinejadˈs favorite first vice president Mohammad-Reza Rahimi is free on bail in that case.
Later on the ˈguiltyˈ verdict issued against Rahimi made everyone sure of his serious involvement in that huge financial corruption case.
In fact the news on involvement of top system officials in the 3000 billion financial corruption file made headlines in the countryˈs media as of the first days after revealing the secrets in that case so that the matter became a common issue talk in the country.
But ever since President Hassan Rouhani took charge and the news on Iranian multi-billionaire Babak Zanjaniˈs arrest were broadcasted, the head of the 11th government issued a strict order to survey the cases related to financial corruption.
Zanjani had said that he was a humble economic pawn of the Islamic system.
Rouhani had said in his 100th day report to the people in a TV program that the system whose ruling he had received over 3 months ago had a high volume of debts, an empty treasure house, high inflation rate, and acute economic recession in the countryˈs economy, adding that he had not thought that the country was engaged with such serious economic challenges.
He therefore ordered the system official to deal with the big-shots in the economic corruption in the country strictly.
On December 28, 2013 Rouhani ordered his first vice president to make the necessary moves aimed at identification and punishment of those who have by taking advantage of their state positions, rent seeking, and using special bonuses earned illegal incomes as a first priority.
President Rouhani had in the letter in that respect addressed to his First Vice President Esˈhaq Jahangiri asked him to take immediate measure and report the results to him maximum within a month.
It seems as if the inherited financial corruption from the previous government was too huge to be summed up within a month, as the president had demanded, but now some three months after the issuance of that order Esˈhaq Jahangiri has announced that his report on financial corruption will be prepared within a week. That will be simultaneous with the first anniversary of an order issued by the Supreme Leader to the system officials to pursue the financial corruption cases seriously.
Such a comprehensive report will be reflective of the 11th governmentˈs resolute will to fight corruption and time will tell if it will be inclusive of new points for the people, or not. It will also definitely be bad news for the some of the former governmentˈs top officials, and especially for the former president who claimed that his government was the most clean-handed in Iranˈs history.
