September 06-13
When Mahmud Ahmadi-nejad left the presidency a month ago, he walked off with $5 million to help start the university he announced he would be running.
That light-fingered approach to state funds caused something of an uproar in Tehran and the new university has said it is returning the money.
Ahmadi-nejad announced just before leaving office that he had received a license to start an institution to be called Iranians University. He said nothing about the financing.
Later, news reports said that in the closing hours of his term, the president withdrew 160 billion rials ($5 million at the open market exchange rate) from his official presidential account and transferred it to the new university.
When officials of the new administration discovered what had happened, they exploded in anger.
Akbar Torkan, a former cabinet minister who is now a senior aide to President Rohani, said, “The money transfer was completely illegal.”
He said that First Vice President Ashaq Jahangiri had confirmed that the action was illegal and directed the government to recover the funds.
Ahmadi-nejad apparently recognized he had a problem and acted quickly to solve it.
The new university’s public relations office issued a statement Saturday saying, “Although the aid that was granted by the previous administration was legal and normal, the university has decided to return the money to the current government in order to avoid any misunderstanding.”
Iranians University is expected to become a retirement home for many officials of the outgoing Ahmadi-nejad Administration. The president’s former chief of staff, Hamid Baghai, former Economy Minister Shamseddin Hossaini and former Deputy President for Planning Behruz Moradi have all been named so far to university posts.