The Sorrow of Oil, the Sorrow of Iran’s Contemporary History
Where in such a hurry…..
The Privatization Organization presented a complete list of companies subject to transfer in year 95, according to which 201 cases of privatization from the public to private sector will be carried out in the final year of the privatization program.
According to FCN: After 10 years of implementing Article 44 and transferring state companies to the private sector, this year marks the end of the privatization program. Based on the decision of the Supreme Transfer Board, 201 state companies are scheduled to be transferred in the final year of transfers. An examination of this list reveals the transfer of very important companies: power plants, regional gas companies, electricity distribution companies, international exhibitions of the Islamic Republic of Iran, fuel stations, subsidiary companies of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Organization, 36 subsidiary companies of the National Gas Organization, 9 subsidiary companies of the National Oil Organization along with 15 thermal power plants, as well as several important companies including the Postal Company, Workers’ Welfare Bank, Iran Tobacco Company, fuel stations, Imam Khomeini Oil Refinery, Abadan Oil Refinery, Kermanshah Oil Refinery, Khuzestan Oil Refinery, Tabriz Petrochemicals, Damavand Petrochemicals, Dehluran Petrochemicals, Firuzabad Petrochemicals, Hamedan Petrochemicals, and Ibn Sina Petrochemical Industries in Hamadan. Based on this, 201 companies are on this year’s transfer list, of which 93 companies are in group one and 108 companies are in group two. Approximately half of these companies, equivalent to 101 companies, are those that should have been transferred in year 94 but for various reasons were not transferred and have thus been added to this year’s list. The main issue now is that with the final year of transfers approaching, supply pressure has increased significantly and compared to the average transfers of the past 10 years, shows remarkable growth. The question is whether it is possible to transfer this high volume of companies in the remaining 9 months of the year? Although according to the advisor of the privatization organization, all efforts are aimed at transferring all these companies to the private sector by the end of year 95, but even assuming this is achieved, given that a large portion of these 201 companies are offered through the capital market, it must be examined whether the capital market has the capacity to absorb these offerings?
While at first glance, after accepting the principle of privatization, it seems that a fundamental step has been taken in this direction, the reality is that to succeed in this process, one must overcome the problems of privatization. In this regard, deregulation, commercialization, liberalization, and transfer of assets and company shares are among the most important concepts of privatization that must be considered. To complete the commercialization issue, the discussion of liberalizing petrochemical product and feedstock prices is raised, which initially requires entering the market and then liberalizing feedstock and product prices of these units with serious attention and consideration.
Increasing competition, improving efficiency, reducing costs, decreasing government presence, increasing productivity, ensuring public welfare, securing necessary capital for the government to cover budget deficits, developing domestic capital markets, and accessing foreign financial resources and technology are among the most important objectives of privatization in the country’s oil industry.
Privatization is essentially a very good idea, of course if it is planned. In the petrochemical industry, privatization will be equivalent to eliminating the integrity of the petrochemical industry and creating a safe environment for foreign competitors in domestic and international market competition. With the privatization of Iran’s sleeping petrochemical giant (as it has been called in the world), it will be transformed into dwarfs that will neither be capable of competition nor worthy of investment. In the meantime, enormous profits will go to the managers of these companies through pre-dealings at low prices and unlimited foreign trips. Employees will ultimately resort to oil again with renewed protests and earn their living from its wages and benefits.
*The loss of welfare facilities for families, an injustice to the future of the Oil Ministry
The work pressure in the Oil Ministry and the difficulty of jobs from an operational and psychological perspective, especially in areas like Khuzestan, necessitated that, given the deprivations, welfare conditions such as housing, sports clubs, recreational facilities, and other centers be provided to maintain the physical and mental stability of employees and their families, to ensure security and peace at home, enable greater attention at the workplace, and promote the safety and mental health of employees. However, the first steps were an attack on these conditions. The loss of these welfare facilities, in addition to the migration of many specialists, especially from drilling companies to competing foreign companies, as can be interpreted from media reports, led to an increase in accident rates, incompetence, and loss of motivation among employees.
But the families of Oil Ministry employees suffered the most damage. Their deprivations, due to the difficult working conditions of their spouses, created depression and bitterness that mental health experts in the oil sector, especially in Khuzestan and more deprived areas, felt well. Welfare facilities provided to oil employees in Khuzestan were not given out of amusement, but rather were a means to reduce pressure and stress from long-term work for them and their families to maintain accuracy and safety at the workplace.
*Employees who were sold along with machinery and land!
From the day privatization became an issue in the Oil Ministry, one of its biggest weaknesses was the lack of clear planning for human resources. The human resources of the Oil Ministry suffered such damage in the story of transfers to other quasi-governmental sectors in terms of security and professional identity that if we call it the biggest human resource tsunami in the history of oil, we would not be exaggerating. On one hand, the recruitment of human resources with political objectives in the Oil Ministry, and on the other hand, neglect of the entire set of employment and appointment regulations in this ministry, and ultimately unprofessional views, darkened the lives of employees.
For example, one of the natural rights of Oil Ministry employees working in deprived and hot regions was the ability to use transfer and relocation rights. This right was part of their legal rights and Oil Ministry regulations. However, quasi-privatization policies in the country’s petrochemical sector of the Oil Ministry in Khuzestan also manifested themselves. In this large organization, employees were illegally deprived of their rights, and their personality and social and professional status were tarnished. The Oil Ministry unilaterally and unjustly first transferred these companies to the private sector and then actually transferred the employees of these companies, along with their machinery, to new quasi-governmental authorities ranging from banks to social security organizations and others, and subsequently deprived them of their transfer rights under the pretext of prohibiting transfers from private to state companies.
Major corruption in the transfer of Kermanshah Refinery: Brokers with the help of government managers seized Kermanshah Refinery
Among the provinces that do not have good memories of privatization and whose poor implementation of the law has increased unemployment in that province is Kermanshah Province.
The issue of acting against the law, this time in the transfer of Kermanshah Refinery, the country’s second oldest refinery. Kermanshah Refinery is nearly a century old and during the war was bombed seven times by the Iraqi regime, but has always maintained its strategic position over these years. The government’s decision to transfer it was made with the justification that Kermanshah Refinery has suffered great losses and accumulated billions in debt, an issue that drew criticism from the province’s representatives’ assembly and faced reactions and protests from people and senior provincial officials in various ways.
But rents have changed hands to buy the refinery and after benefiting from its profits, destroy it. If Kermanshah Refinery were to be reassessed at current prices, its value would be several times higher than the currently determined price. Unfortunately, reassessment is not being done and in expert appraisals, strange numbers are given that indicate a rent and a suspicious stream behind the scenes.
Just one item is that if they want to get electricity from the Ministry of Energy, just the refinery’s electrical connection alone currently costs over 50 billion tomans. The land there is valued at over two million tomans per meter, but in the announced expert appraisal, a maximum of two hundred thousand tomans per meter has been declared. Over 50 billion tomans worth of equipment in the warehouse including generators and machinery is located there. But the price of scrap metal there exceeds the announced price.
But dear fellow citizen, let us learn more and reflect a little: “The transfer of bankrupt industries is against the law. Among the provisions of transfers and privatizations are the preservation of the use of companies and factories and the protection of workers and technicians.”
Why should our government and governance have such audacity and courage to openly and actually violate the law and, ignoring public rights, proceed to destroy national capital?
This is not only a violation of law but also a violation of human rights and causes the destruction of human rights and human motivations…..
Amen, O Lord, for You are the Living God:
O people, it is said in the wise word of God that:
Night is coming to an end and day is approaching. So let us put away the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light… Let us act as it is fitting for those who live in the light of day…..
But embrace Jesus………..
