PHOTO: Head of the Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari — “Politicians are part of a network” of corruption
Using a new weapon in its ongoing battle with the Rouhani Government, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have threatened use of a scandal over excessive salaries to detain politicians and officials.
The head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, issued the notice at a press conference on Wednesday, declaring that one of the IRGC’s intelligence projects is to “monitor and review” economic corruption.
Jafari highlighted the Guards’ first high-profile arrest in the “payslips scandal”, the detention of the recently-dismissed head of Bank Mellat, Ali Rastegar Sorkhe’i.
See Iran Daily, July 20: Top Banker Arrested as Salaries Scandal Expands
He said that Rastegar Sorkhe’i, one of four bank heads fired by the Government earlier this month, is “certainly” linked to the controversy over salaries, bonuses, and perquisites of hundreds of thousands of dollars per official. However, Jafari asserted that the banker was arrested for “larger economic corruption”.
Asked if other arrests will be made, Jafari assured, “Other officials and individuals were involved.” He declared that Rastegar Sorkhe’i is part of a “network, and some politicians are also involved in this”.
A hint of how far the Guards’ attempt may reach came in an allegation, by the Tasnim News Agency alleged that Rastegar Sorkhei “is close to Hossein Fereydoun”, President Hassan Rouhani’s brother and advisor. The article maintained that the banker used Government funds to stay in Presidential suites at luxury hotels in Dubai.
Hardline and conservative media have run a series of claims that officials who received excessive salaries at State-run banks, insurance companies, and health-care institutions were hired after lobbying by Fereydoun. A statement on Wednesday by a university scholarship association accused Fereydoun of using his influence within Science Ministry to enter university for his Ph.D.
Science Minister Mohammad Farhadi denied the allegations; “Hossein Fereydoun took an official and legal route to enter Shahid Beheshti University.”
First Vice President, who has led an inquiry into the salaries, has also been targeted with claims of his bonus of about $200,000 from a State-owned cement factory.
The “payslips scandal” broke in May with the publication of the salaries and bonuses of eight managers of the State-owned Central Insurance Company. It grew with the exposure the next month with the revelation of the income of other officials in the Government and State-run institutions, with monthly wages of more than $200,000.
As the Supreme Leader demanded action, President Rouhani ordered the Government inquiry. He received the Jahangiri committee’s report earlier this month and promised effective measures in an open letter to the Iranian public. Mohammad Jafari Montazeri, Iran’s Prosecutor General, has asked Economy Minister Ali Teyebnia to provide the judiciary with a list of the government employees receiving high salaries.
While accusing others of being implicated in the scandals, the Revolutionary Guards have refused to divulge the salaries of military commanders, saying they were “state secrets”.
