Iran Rife With Bribery, Kickback Demands

by Ramin Mostaghim

(IPS) TEHRAN -- Graft has become so widespread in Iran that the growing economic and spiritual malaise in the country is getting worse by the day, many people say.

"If I do not pay a 'success fee' for any contract I sign with government organisations, big or small, I will be out of business very quickly," Mahmoud Asgari, the proprietor of two medium-sized printing houses in Tehran, told IPS.

"Our main revenue comes from publishing government brochures, news bulletins, books and political campaign posters," he continued. "If these items end up in our printing machines, that implies we have agreed to pay 'success fees' to these brokers or middlemen, whose generic name in colloquial Farsi is 'kar chaq kon.'

According to Asgari, such fees range from 10 to 30 percent of the total value of a contract, which for him means he must pay government officials as much as $600 for a job.

The 55-year-old publisher said he has to make similar payments whenever he applies for business loans.

"Every businessman, for every any single loan he receives from the banks, is obliged to pay a fraction of the total amount to bank officials," Asgari said.

These kickbacks, he added, allow government bank managers to live "well off" even though their official salary is only about $500.

But the government readily acknowledges that corruption is a serious problem.

Last month for example, the Intelligence Ministry announced that, since it was created two years ago, its Anti-Economic Corruption Department has filed 821 "economic corruption dossiers" involving government officials to various courts.

While touring the annual exhibition of the Government Inspection Organization (GIO), another anti-corruption agency, the new speaker of the parliament Gholamali Haddadadel told reporters, "I am really sorry to see such a huge rate of corruption in the country."

His comments came in response to a briefing by GIO in which he was told that two billion dollars had been wasted on a mining project in northeastern Iran that was based on fraudulent feasibility studies.

The GIO, part of the judiciary branch, held its first annual exhibition three years ago, at a time when graft and other corruption among government officials were widely viewed as running rampant.

This year's show was held late last month on the premises of the newly built Mosalla -- the capital's grand praying hall.

The annual exhibition is held to highlight the achievements of GIO's nationwide anti-corruption campaign, but those whose job is to carry out the campaign say it also underscores why the government's efforts are largely ineffective.

"These weeks of attempts to do something about corruption are official cliche," said Qolam Homayouni, who works as an economic inspector for GIO.

He told IPS: "The fight against corruption should be initiated from the bottom and by genuine non-governmental organizations. And the press must be free to scrutinize the governmental entities."

"It is naive for people to assume their government can have self-cleansing power," Homayouni continued.

A guide at the exhibition, who spoke to IPS on the condition of anonymity, said, "No commoners, no one from the grassroots are here. Instead, high-ranking officials, top managers -- of course, under police escort -- are bused in to be briefed about the anti-corruption campaign, and are given the understanding that no single act of wrongdoing is disregarded."

This claim about the agency's thoroughness was disputed by the guide -- an economics expert who works as a rank-and-file member a GIO investigative team.

He pointed out that the GIO has 988 experts and inspectors to monitor more than 2.3 million full-time public servants and millions of other people who earn a living "selling their services to various ministries under temporary contracts."

"How on earth is it feasible to control everything and fight widespread corruption?" he asked.

He also wondered whether supreme leader Ayatollah Khameini was sufficiently committed to fighting corruption, suggesting that, like his pre-revolutionary predecessor, the shah, he may use knowledge of corruption among "big fish" to keep them in line.

"That is an effective way to maintain power and to guarantee no mutiny among top officials," he said.

Former shah, Reza Pahlavi, lost power in the Islamc revolution of 1978.

It was corruption and a crackdown on opposition voices during his rule that caused Iran's U.S.- backed monarchy to topple -- allowing conservative clerics to seize power and institute a hard-line Islamic state.

Ahamad Bashiri, a 73-year-old attorney well-versed in the government's anti-corruption efforts, said: "This judiciary branch which is supposed to fight corruption is itself deeply corrupted."

Noting that the head of the judiciary's security and intelligence department recently announced that more than 400 'kar chaq kon' were detected in various courts last year, he asked, "How can the GIO, under the auspice of this kind of judiciary branch, successfully fight corruption?"

Despite there being questionable effectiveness, the government's anti-corruption efforts are widely publicized.

"Fighting financial corruption and what in the Islamic regime has been coined as 'rantkhari' -- rent-seeking -- are highlighted on an unprecedented scale these days," said Ali Sepidarkish, a retired insurance manager.

"I am sure, if they are serious about fighting corruption, it is due to the feeling shared among officials that the survival of the whole system is at stake," he told IPS.