Criticism of Rouhani's Government for Not Awarding Contracts to the IRGC

One day after the commander of the Khatam al-Anbia Headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) requested the President to cancel a contract for the construction of 10 ships with South Korea and transfer it to this organization, the representative of the Supreme Leader in the Kayhan newspaper called this contract and similar cases a "new conspiracy" and "betrayal of the homeland." Hossein Shariatmadari, the representative of the Supreme Leader in the Kayhan newspaper, in the editorial of the Tuesday, December 22 issue of the newspaper, referred to this contract and other government contracts with foreign companies, including oil contracts, stating that the so-called "infiltration" intends to attribute all problems to the insistence of the nation and the system on the principles and foundations of Islam and the revolution. He added: "The mysterious and infiltrated current in some decision-making and policy-making centers of the system is pursuing an American-Israeli project to surrender Iran and the people of this land to America, and this is exactly the betrayal of the homeland that was sought during the American-Israeli sedition of 2009 and failed." The representative of the Supreme Leader in the Kayhan newspaper called these contracts a "new conspiracy" and emphasized that "betrayal of the homeland is the most expressive term to describe it." One day before Mr. Shariatmadari's note, Abdollah Abdollahi, the commander of the Khatam al-Anbia Headquarters of the IRGC, criticized the awarding of this contract to Hyundai of South Korea and stated that this organization is ready to implement this project "by creating a consortium of domestic companies such as Sadra and Izaco." He asked the President to cancel this contract and said, "The Koreans took our $215 million 8 years ago and did nothing to build the ships." These remarks by the commander of Khatam al-Anbia come as Ali Akbar Ghanji, the advisor to the CEO of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, after signing a contract with Hyundai, stated: "In 2008, a contract was signed with Korea for the construction of 17 ships, and an amount of approximately $227 million was paid to two factories, STP and HHI, which during the sanctions, this money was frozen in Korea and the ships were not built." According to Mr. Ghanji, of the $227 million that was blocked in this country, part was allocated to STP and about $154 million was with HHI, which currently the $154 million is available to HHI as the initial amount for ship construction, and other costs are to be financed. According to the Shargh newspaper, the advisor to the CEO of the Iranian shipping company emphasized: "Currently, no money has been allocated for the construction of these ships. The burnt money has been revived, and in addition, the Koreans have dropped their lawsuit against Iran for damages caused by the halt of this project, which they believe was due to the political climate in Iran." The IRGC's efforts to seize this contract come at a time when some government officials have previously announced that this organization has not delivered some of its previous projects after the deadline. For instance, Akbar Turkan, the secretary of the Free Zones Coordination Council of Iran, criticized the Khatam al-Anbia Headquarters of the IRGC in September 2014 for "not attracting" foreign financing for the Persian Gulf Bridge project on Qeshm Island, stating that "the government cannot exert pressure on the Khatam Headquarters." According to him, this project, which was supposed to be operational in 2013, had only 3% physical progress at the time of its handover to the new government. Ramadan Sharif, the spokesperson for the IRGC, on Monday, December 1, in response to protests against the economic activities of this organization, stated that "a bunch of crafty people" are active in the contracting sector of the country and until the middle of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government, "a large portion" of the "money-making projects of the country" in the automotive sector was under the control of the Freedom Movement. The Khatam al-Anbia Headquarters was established by order of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, and according to previous reports from the IRGC to the Budget Commission of the Parliament, it has 812 registered companies in Iran and abroad. Many construction and infrastructure projects in Iran in various fields such as energy, telecommunications, transportation, and dam construction have been awarded to this headquarters with the approval of the government and without going through the tender process in recent years. The Tehran Municipality also signed a 20 trillion toman agreement with the Khatam al-Anbia Headquarters in 2014, which according to the terms of this agreement, the Tehran Municipality is to allocate 10 trillion tomans in cash and 10 trillion tomans in non-cash for the implementation of construction projects to this headquarters over the next four years. Economic experts and analysts describe the presence of security, military, and law enforcement institutions in Iran's economy as one of the serious obstacles to economic development, the presence of a real private sector, and attracting investment in the country. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former President of Iran, in July 2011, criticized the unregulated import of goods through illegal channels, using the term "our own smuggler brothers," stating that they have made holes wherever they wanted and are importing goods from there. At that time, experts and analysts speculated that Ahmadinejad's remarks referred to the economic performance of the IRGC, but Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander of the IRGC, called those remarks a "diversionary issue."