Iran’s government often commits action that are so stupefacient and unique, that no one can believe them. And the truth about the corruption in this government are so bitter that no one can ignore them.
In recent days, one shocking news was the manipulation of the parliamentary approvals about the government’s annual budget, which was approved by the parliament.
The situation was so severe that numerous officials demanded the resignation of the parliament speaker Mohamad Bagher Ghalibaf and his gang inside this mafia organization in the regime.
Last year after the rejection of the main parts of the budget bill, this bill was returned to the government. After month of disputes and discussions between the government’s different factions finally it was approved with many changes, while in the budget bill they consider and transmit about 53 trillion tomans to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC). So, the budget bill was approved, and the situation calmed down.
In a letter to the regime’s president Hassan Rouhani, Ghalibaf asked the government the desired and fundamental changes in favor of the supreme leader Ali Khamenei, and now it has become what the purpose of this demands was. Then it was notified to the government.
But as it becomes clear at the same time the manipulation of the budget bill started, so that what the regime’s gangs could not achieve from the footnotes of the budget and the law articles, in secrecy they started to gain their benefits with the manipulation of the spreadsheets and the numbers, to have enough money for their future plans, which are mainly in favor of the IRGC.
The Budget Consolidation Commission, chaired by Elias Naderan, a member of Ghalibaf’s gang, started this mess in regime’s parliament.
Ghalibaf and his entourage deliberately passed a bill that did not include the relevant tables so that they could manipulate it in secret.
“On the same day, March 16, it was stated that the members of the parliament, while voting on the final amendments to the single article, had warned against the non-submission of tables by the Joint Commission; However, this matter was not taken into consideration by the chair at the time of the meeting and caused the budget bill to be voted on without informing the deputies about the dimension of the tables and the amount (money) of the rows, especially in the expenses section.” (State-run daily Aftab, April 25, 2021)
“In a letter to the speaker, more than 100 lawmakers claimed that the figures in the budget tables and some notes had changed dramatically after the parliament passed the bill, calling it a new record in disobeying the bylaws and creating rent-seeking for several people. And asked for the action of the speaker of the parliament in this regard.” (State-run daily Iran, April 25, 2021)
The head of the Article 90 Commission also wrote in another message, that with the coordination of Ghalibaf, “extensive shifts in budget figures have taken place after public approval,” and with this, “large rents are given to certain groups.”
In another part of the letter of the members of the parliament, it is stated: “It is even more unfortunate that these tables have been changed many times until about a month later, that is, until April 10, and surprisingly, the tables have been announced in the parliament 25 days after the approval of the budget.
“And unfortunately, according to documentary news, these changes are not limited to the figures of the tables, but even include general changes in the notes and tables within them and corrections of paragraphs based on the demands of the Guardian Council, all by the chairman and one or two members.
“All this has been done by the chairman of the Joint Commission and one or two members of the commission and friends from outside the parliament without the knowledge of even the members of the Joint Commission.” (State-run daily Hamshahri, April 24, 2021)
As Mohammad Mohajeri, a member of Rouhani’s media team, has said, the changes made in the approvals of the parliament are about 200 cases. However, this decision has been notified to the government and is considered a done deal.
One of the state-run dailies related this scandal to two of Ghlibaf’s close people and wrote: “Jamaleddin Aberoumand, Assistant to the Speaker of the Parliament for Development and Progress and, Elias Naderan, the head of the Joint Commission, changed hundreds of billions of Tomans in the budget without informing the deputies.” (State-run daily Etemad, April 25, 2021)
Evidence shows that the government of Rouhani was not dissatisfied with the transfer of hidden funds in the budget approvals. And in short, the government’s program and budget organization were benefiting from this corruption too. Their silence after this scandal confirms this.
