Astronomical Salaries Continue in Government; State Media and Judiciary Do Not Disclose Manager Salaries

While some news websites report the continuation of high salary payments in government subsidiaries, the head of the Administrative and Employment Organization announced that state media and the judiciary have not disclosed salary information for their managers.

Jamshid Ansari, in an interview with Iran newspaper published on Sunday, July 30, in response to the question of why after 15 months, Article 29 of the Sixth Development Plan regarding the implementation of a manager salary and benefits system has not been executed, said that some institutions including the judiciary and state media have not uploaded information about their managers’ salaries and benefits into this system.

The requirement to disclose managers’ salaries and benefits came about after three years ago when the disclosure of hundreds of millions of tomans in salaries for several government officials made headlines and prompted a response from the Leader of the Islamic Republic, an apology from the head of the Management and Planning Organization, and clarification from Hassan Rouhani.

At that time, the government responded to critics by announcing that the payment of astronomical salaries was not limited to the government and had occurred in other institutions.

Now, while announcing that state media and the judiciary still have not uploaded information about their managers’ salaries into the relevant system, some news websites reported that the salary and benefits of Vali Azarosh, general director of Atiyeh Saba Investment Company affiliated with the national pension and social security fund, who was recently removed from office, were approximately 60 million tomans per month until May of this year, and the salary of Ali Mohammad Alikhanizadeh, a member of the board of directors of this company, was more than 44 million tomans. This is while the maximum salary for managers has been set at 20 million tomans.

The Social Security Organization has not yet responded to these reports.

In August 2016, three months after the disclosure of high salaries for government officials, the head of the Court of Accounts of Iran announced in a report to the Islamic Consultative Assembly that approximately 400 managers were receiving salaries exceeding 20 million tomans per month.

Source: Voice of America