Astronomical Revenues in Iran’s Water Sector; 230,000 Euro Mission Allowance for CEO of Semi-Government Company
An Iranian news agency has reported on “astronomical revenues” for foreign travels and projects in the water sector, and has unveiled the presence of a consulting company “with unparalleled technical capabilities” in stalled foreign projects “such as tunnel excavation.”
Mehr News Agency, in an article published on Sunday, Bahman 10, reported based on documented information that “one of the main incentives for abandoning strategic domestic projects and moving toward foreign projects is the issue of profits and mission allowances for managers.”
According to this report, in just one case, the CEO of a water engineering consulting firm received “500 euros per day for presence in foreign countries, which at the current exchange rate of 30,000 tomans per euro amounts to 15 million tomans per day.”
The CEO in question is referred to in this report by the abbreviated name “N.T.” In November of this year alone, he “made 3 foreign trips to 2 destinations, Oman and Sri Lanka, with document numbers 2160, 2233, and 2361, totaling 15 days, and received 7,500 euros, equivalent to 225 million tomans, deposited into his account solely from foreign mission allowances.”
The report emphasizes: “During his 14 years of activity with this organization, a total of 576 foreign missions were recorded in the form of 117 trips to countries including Switzerland, Germany, Italy, France, Canada, Turkey, India, Russia, Australia, Japan, the UAE, Oman, Sri Lanka, Venezuela, and Nepal, and he has generally received mission allowances totaling 233,200 euros.”
While “in recent years this company has only had projects in three countries—Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Oman—and the reason for multiple and lengthy trips to countries such as Canada and the Netherlands is unclear.”
Although the company name was not mentioned in this report and the CEO’s name was only abbreviated, users with pseudonym accounts identifying themselves as employees of “Mahab Qods” company confirmed this Mehr News Agency report in the comments section.
Nikahang Kosar, a water sector expert and journalist, emphasizing the embezzlement of large sums of money by “members of the water mafia” and referring to the semi-government company “Mahab Qods” in a Twitter thread wrote: “The person goes on a trip, and then it turns out how much he rewarded himself.”
Earlier, WaterNews—an information and awareness platform for the water sector—on December 16, 1399, wrote in a report titled “Privatization by the Mahab Qods Method”: “The privatization of Mahab Qods and the special share of the CEO is an example that has received little attention. Now a company whose name is linked to the environmentally destructive Karun 4 (Katranji) dam project faces one of the toughest challenges.”
Moderadon newspaper also on December 13, 1399, in a report titled “The Fate of Heptape Awaits Mahab Qods” referred to the beginning of Mahab Qods’ privatization process “since 1390” by the Ministry of Energy, which “after more than two years with the Rouhani administration coming to power, this transfer was cancelled and the company’s shares returned to the government, represented by the Ministry of Energy, but in practice nothing happened.”
According to this report, Mahab, which is considered one of the most powerful and influential dam-building organizations, has now entered the path of companies like HEPCO, Heptape, and Moghan Industrial Agriculture.
WaterNews reported based on news sources: “The person who has profited the most from the privatization process in the past decade is Nasser Turkeshdouz, the CEO of Mahab… In the transfer of shares between the Ministry of Energy and the Astan Quds Razavi, Engineer Turkeshdouz owned 1.25 percent of the company’s assets of 12 trillion tomans at the time of transfer.” WaterNews, citing some analysts, writes that the amount paid to the CEO of this company based on the exchange rate in 1391 and 1392 has been estimated between 70 to 125 million US dollars.
Corruption and rent-seeking in the water sector exist at a time when Iran faces serious water crisis challenges; as Abbas Ghali Jahani, former member of the World Water Council, stated, there is currently no vision of political will to resolve water disputes, and although everyone says in words that water is not a subject of war and should be a factor for peace, in reality it requires necessary thought and cooperation, as this issue has put the Middle East and North Africa region under potential water stress.
Nikahang Kosar also previously emphasized in an interview with the Farsi section of Voice of America that people, through cooperation with each other, can prevent the outbreak of such wars, otherwise the occurrence of these disputes “with the mismanagement we see between countries and governments” causes tensions to increase.
Source: Voice of America
