Investigation Report from Hamshahri Institute Sent to Judiciary During Qalibaf's Tenure

The Tehran City Council approved the investigation report regarding the Hamshahri newspaper during Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf's tenure and sent it to the judiciary for examination of 'violations'. According to ISNA, in 2015, the board of directors of the Hamshahri Institute, contrary to the city council's resolutions, created new jobs, resulting in '136 illegal new positions' currently existing in the institute. The report states that in 2017, the financial deputy of Hamshahri received a salary of 18 million and 900 thousand tomans, which was against the salary payment guidelines. The city council's report indicates that in the privatization of newspaper distribution, 'the pricing of contracts was baseless and without criteria', and 'legal formalities were not observed in this transfer'. It was also noted that 'most transactions' of this institute were conducted without tenders and bypassing formalities. The report mentions some contracts of the Hamshahri Institute with individuals for producing products 'unrelated to the work of this institute', including 'printing and publishing Hezbollah magazine', 'producing a documentary film on the struggles of the Iraqi people against ISIS', 'examining the status of chastity and hijab of female employees of Tehran Municipality', and 'legal examination of Iranian assets confiscated by the U.S.'. Last year, 14 members of the fourth Tehran City Council requested an investigation into the use or non-use of Tehran Municipality facilities, especially the Hamshahri Institute's resources in the presidential elections. Mohammad Ali Najafi, the then-mayor of Tehran, on January 13, 2018, reported on the status of Tehran's municipality, accusing former mayors and managers of issues such as 'spending the municipality's budget on the presidential elections', 'sudden hiring of 13,000 people on the eve of elections', 'betrayal in the employees' reserve fund', and 'arbitrary transfer of 674 properties'. Following that, Majid Farahani, a member of the Tehran City Council, announced that 12 cases of 'violations' during Qalibaf's management had been sent to the judiciary. The judiciary has not yet provided a report on the handling of these cases, while the Tehran prosecutor announced on July 8 that the cases of several municipal project defendants are under investigation in the military prosecutor's office.