Revealing Salary Slips

In the Sunday edition of Iranian newspapers, the story of "salary slips" is intertwined with some corruption cases from the previous government, including the case of Mahmoud Khavari, the former CEO of Bank Melli, and the 3 trillion tomans embezzlement scandal. The newspaper Javan, close to the Revolutionary Guards, headlined "Pocket Development Fund" without naming "Safdar Hosseini," the head of the National Development Fund, accusing him of receiving the "highest salary in the government system" and stating: "The head of the National Development Fund receives a monthly salary of 57 million tomans while also including sports allowances, book purchases, and leisure expenses for his children in his salary slip." This newspaper emphasized that "the head of the National Development Fund, according to existing documents, received an average of 57 million and 400 thousand tomans in salary from Farvardin to Esfand 94" and "last year, he received a total of about 686 million tomans in salary from the National Development Fund," in addition to "taking a 300 million toman loan at 4% interest, leisure allowances for his children," and "the tens of millions of tomans salaries of other members" are also part of the astronomical salary slips story. The newspaper Etemad reported on mutual revelations between supporters and opponents of the government, stating: "The game of critics and supporters of Hassan Rouhani has now reached revealing salary slips, and after two reports of astronomical salaries of managers from one of the banks and one of the insurance companies, it was time for a salary slip from the previous government to be revealed; a salary slip with a monthly income of 29 million tomans and 458 million tomans in bonuses for three months of serving as CEO." Etemad also reported that "a few hours after the publication of this salary slip, which seemed to be a response to government critics regarding salary issues, another salary slip was revealed; this time there was no image of the salary slip, but the news agency Tasnim claimed to have documents regarding the salary situation of the head, deputy, and board members of the National Development Fund, showing that these individuals received unusual salaries." Etemad simultaneously dedicated its front page to the case of Mahmoud Khavari, the former CEO of Bank Melli during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency, which is related to the revelation of the 3 trillion tomans embezzlement case, a topic that is also the front page of the newspaper Shargh. Etemad, with the headline "Khavari's House Construction in Canada," wrote: "Mahmoud Khavari, who fled Iran following embezzlement charges, has invested in a construction project in Canada" and now this controversial figure, involved in "one of the most famous corruption cases in Iran, is entangled in another legal case." The newspaper also noted about Mahmoud Khavari: "It seems that the accused in the 3 trillion tomans corruption case has encountered problems with his business partner in apartment construction projects, leading to a court case in Ontario, Canada," as "Bloomberg has confirmed that the dispute in the apartment construction case in the Yorkville area was about how to divide the profits from the project, and besides Mahmoudreza Khavari, his son Khashayar Khavari is also a party to the lawsuit against Sam Mirzahi, their business partner," and "now it remains to be seen whether the man who escaped trial in the 3 trillion tomans case will be tried in the Ontario court and whether this case will change the process of his extradition to Iran." The newspaper Shargh also featured on its front page with the title "The Strange Case of Khavari in Canada," stating: "The fate of two accused of economic corruption in Iran, who are currently in the West, is both strange and different. The first is Reza Zarrab, a partner of Babak Zanjani, who is imprisoned in the U.S. for attempting to circumvent sanctions against Iran. The second, however, has a different situation; Mahmoudreza Khavari, who fled to Canada years ago due to financial corruption charges in the 3 trillion tomans case, is currently engaged in a massive financial investment in Sam Mirzahi's company, one of the largest investment firms in Canada." The newspaper Qanoon, on its front page with the hashtag "#SalarySlipChallenge," has called on "managers who are aligned and sympathetic to the resilient economy" to "declare their salaries." Mahbubeh Mohammadi, in a report for this newspaper, referring to the poverty line of "3 million and 200 thousand tomans" in Tehran, wrote: "The astronomical figures of government managers' salary slips have been published, shocking society. All those who have received such figures, even in the name of law but certainly completely unfairly, must be accountable to society. They must reveal the special services they have provided in preserving national interests and improving people's livelihoods, based on which they consider themselves deserving of such amounts, and leave the judgment to the people." The newspaper Farhikhtegan, in a report titled "Slip Gate," wrote: "The salary slips are a new headache for the eleventh government. Last week, President Hassan Rouhani assigned his first vice president, Eshaq Jahangiri, to prioritize this issue and to dismiss managers who receive astronomical salaries," but "the question that arises is what is the purpose of revealing these slips and playing with them in the media? And how should Hassan Rouhani act in the face of this event?" Ahmad Shirzad, a reformist figure, told Farhikhtegan: "As a university professor who also receives a good salary, it is unimaginable for me that someone in a bank receives a salary over 100 million. What has this person done for the country?" This reformist figure emphasized that "if the payments are legal but unusual, the senior managers who ordered these payments must definitely be dismissed, and those who received this money, regardless of who they are, must be dismissed, which of course does not mean their trial; however, if the payments are illegal, administrative courts must pursue them; both the money must be recovered, and the offenders must be prosecuted." Hassan Rasouli, another figure close to the reformists, also told Farhikhtegan: "In the coming year, which is the last year of Mr. Rouhani's government, critics of the government will design and implement various plans and projects to compete with the government: the exaggeration that has occurred in recent days regarding the earnings of some economic managers is one of these projects." He also called for the eleventh government to take the initiative and emphasized that "internal purification of the government and the removal of elements seeking banditry and astronomical payments from the administrative body of the country and accurate information to the people" is one of the effective solutions for the government regarding the salary slips. The newspaper Shahre Vahdat dedicated its front page to the "explosion in Shahran, disruption in Tehran," reporting: "A gas pipeline explosion in the west of the capital cut off water, electricity, gas, and communication lines for hours." According to this newspaper, early Friday morning, "the gas pipeline in the Shahran area exploded horrifically, causing disruption in western Tehran. It is said that this gas pipeline exploded due to contact with equipment from the metro project. Meanwhile, the metro denied any connection between this explosion and its activities." The Shahre Vahdat newspaper emphasized that "it is highly likely that two workers lost their lives in this incident, although officials did not confirm the death of these two workers and used the term 'missing' to describe their situation," writing: "The severity of this incident was such that a large hole was created in the ground, and the likelihood of nearby buildings collapsing is high." The newspaper Hamdeli also dedicated its front page to the gas pipeline explosion in the "Shahran" area, with the headline "Tehran, Shahran, Crisis," stating that these three words came together on Friday to "reveal management holes." According to this newspaper, "At 4:30 AM on Friday, residents of the Kouhsar area (Shahran) woke up to the sound of a tremendous explosion; an explosion whose flames reached beyond the surrounding multi-story buildings and made headlines in both domestic and foreign media; it damaged several homes and workshops and caused disruption in the telecommunications network and cut off gas and electricity," and for hours after the explosion, "while the loudspeakers of rescue vehicles repeatedly requested nearby residents to evacuate their homes, conflicting news was also published about the number of injured and dead." Mohammad Mahdi Tanghoyan, a member of the Tehran City Council, told Hamdeli: "The incident that occurred on Friday morning shows that we cannot manage any crisis; an earthquake, let alone; when a gas pipeline bursts, several areas of Tehran lose their electricity, gas, water, and telephone, woe to the day an earthquake comes; aside from the fact that the earthquake itself causes significant damage, the damages afterward will be greater than the earthquake itself." This member of the Tehran City Council emphasized that "Tehran is a city that sinks about 36 centimeters a year; even without an earthquake, this is a type of silent earthquake that occurs in the city, and every three years, we have one meter of city sinking," stating: "Currently, we have underground channels for water, electricity, and metro that are not coordinated with each other, and many of them do not have a documented map; a problem that becomes more problematic in times of crisis." The newspaper Iran dedicated its front page to "the surge of dust in seven provinces," reporting that on Thursday and Friday, "the provinces of Kermanshah, Ilam, Bushehr, and Khuzestan, with less intensity Kurdistan, Lorestan, and Hamadan witnessed the phenomenon of dust and a decrease in air quality and horizontal visibility," which "according to the meteorological organization’s forecast, will decrease in intensity starting today, Saturday." This newspaper emphasized that "a new dust mass that has covered a wide area of the western and southern provinces of the country, including Ilam, Kermanshah, and Khuzestan, since Thursday afternoon is due to dust storms occurring in the deserts of Iraq and Syria, which are carried by the wind towards our country and pose a threat to the health of the people in these areas." The newspaper Iran noted that on Friday, "the highest level of dust was recorded in Abadan, reaching 15 times the permissible limit," writing: "Masoumeh Ebtekar in her Telegram stated that the source of the dust that has covered a wide area of western and southern provinces since yesterday is based on international online maps from Iraq." The newspaper Shargh has a report about "the daily recruitment of thugs to combat sidewalk obstruction" and has reported that during the complaint of four street vendors assaulted by municipal agents in Tehran, the security police confirmed that "the city guards, with the help of these thugs, assaulted them." Masoumeh Asghari in her report for Shargh noted that confrontations between sidewalk obstruction agents and street vendors in recent years have led to incidents such as "the death of a street vendor named Cheraghi, a garbage collector, or the Saadatabad car wash incident" and similar cases, writing: "Some evidence suggested that a number of thugs were recently recruited by the municipality. These pieces of evidence were never officially and publicly confirmed; however, now in the course of following up on the case of the assault on four green vendors on the Azadegan highway, Payam Darvishan, the lawyer for this case, stated: "The police in part of their report indicated that recent news suggests that the municipality has been daily recruiting thugs in the sidewalk obstruction unit (city guards) and sending them to disperse individuals obstructing the sidewalks." The lawyer for these four street vendors, who, according to Shargh, some of them have bachelor's degrees but had to resort to street vending due to financial difficulties, pointed out that two complaints were filed by the assaulted vendors, one against the Tehran mayor and the mayor of district 15 in the special court for government employees, and "the other case is against the individuals who assaulted these young men and has been filed in the court of Shahr Rey based on the location of the incident." Payam Darvishan also mentioned that in "the investigations and interrogations conducted by the security police of Shahr Rey, and in an official report submitted to the investigator, they confirmed that these thugs were employed by the municipality for tasks that managers want to carry out without getting involved themselves; even in the police report, the names of companies related to the municipality and their addresses were mentioned, and in the interrogation of one of the deputies of the district municipality, this individual also confirmed this issue." The operations of the Iraqi army to liberate Fallujah have also occupied the front pages of several Iranian newspapers on Saturday. The newspaper Vatan-e-Emruz with the headline "Fallujah Freed," reported on "the fall of the first stronghold of ISIS with the entry of senior commanders of the Iraqi army and Hashd al-Shaabi into the governor's building" of this city, and Kayhan also with the headline "The Iraqi Army Reached the Heart of Fallujah," wrote: "Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and other ISIS leaders in the city of Mosul, after the liberation of Fallujah, have no choice but to commit suicide or wait for death at the hands of the Iraqi armed forces." Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, in an interview with the newspaper Qanoon, emphasized that in the 2016 presidential elections, "if everything proceeds naturally, Mr. Rouhani will have no serious rival," stating: "I am not worried about the return of Ahmadinejad and his ideology." He, who was in charge of overseeing the elections in 1996, told the newspaper Qanoon: "My main duty in 1996 was to ensure the integrity of the elections," but at that time, he accepted both Mohammad Khatami and Ali Akbar Nategh Nouri, but "at that time I had one vote" and therefore "in 1996, I voted for Hojjatoleslam Nategh Nouri." In this context, the launch of "the first hospital for students addicted to drugs," "child marriage at the warning threshold," "some are trying to change the course of the presidency," and "the possibility of public oversight over the management of public assets should be provided."