Tehran City Council Member: The Number of Municipal Employees Receiving Salaries is Twice the Registered Staff

A member of the Tehran City Council announced that the Tehran Municipality pays 550 billion tomans in salaries monthly, and the number of salary recipients in this institution is about twice the officially registered staff. Majid Farahani, in an interview with ILNA news agency on Saturday, October 14, stated that according to statistics, over 130,000 people receive salaries from the Tehran Municipality, while it has been officially announced that this institution has 68,000 employees. According to Mr. Farahani, the Tehran Municipality pays about 550 billion tomans as salaries monthly, and this figure has placed a 'very heavy burden in terms of current expenses on Tehran.' He also mentioned that a 'large portion' of the employees of the Tehran Municipality, especially its managers, are retired individuals, and some employees have been transferred from other government sectors to the municipality. Some reformist members of the fourth Tehran City Council had previously criticized the 'irregular hiring' during Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf's management. Meanwhile, according to reports from the Inspection Organization published by Rahmatollah Hafezi, a member of the fourth Tehran City Council, the Tehran Municipality hired about 4,200 individuals related to religious figures and national and military officials as excess staff in the Tehran Metro operating company between 2011 and 2013. According to these reports, 40 of the individuals hired in 2012 and 2013 were over 40 years old, and 30% of those recruited by the Tehran Metro had education below the fifth grade or were illiterate, with an average salary of these individuals reported between 9 to 11 million tomans. Meanwhile, Mr. Farahani emphasized that the situation in some companies and organizations affiliated with the municipality is very 'deplorable.' According to this member of the Tehran City Council, in the Metro operating company, more than 4,000 individuals are 'unassigned' and have become known as 'idle employees.' 'Unassigned' employees in Iranian offices are those who are employed but have not been assigned any tasks and are placed under 'personnel management' until work is designated for them. The reformists, who currently control the Tehran Municipality and City Council, criticize Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf's actions and believe that he created an unfavorable financial situation in this institution during his 12 years of mayorship. 'Lack of financial discipline and increased municipal costs,' 'excessive sale of density,' 'increase in Tehran Municipality staff,' and 'widespread corruption' are among the criticisms of reformists regarding Mr. Qalibaf's management. Meanwhile, Mahmoud Mirloohi, a member of the City Council, reported on Saturday, October 7, that Mohammad Ali Najafi, the mayor of Tehran, announced the municipality's debts to be 52.5 trillion tomans, of which 30 trillion tomans are 'definite debts.' Mr. Najafi stated on Tuesday, August 25, that this institution has debts more than 1.7 times the budget of 2017, amounting to about 30 trillion tomans. Last year, the case of the transfer of Tehran Municipality properties also made headlines, but the former mayor of Tehran denied all reports related to corruption in the municipality, stating that there was not even a single case of 'organized violation' in this institution.