Hossaini issued the caution at an international conference in Tehran on battling corruption. It was a strange comment to make at a conference the Islamic Republic was sponsoring. Normally, at such gatherings regime officials come out swinging their ideological clubs and do not pause for nuances or qualifications.
According to the English language Iran Daily, Hossaini said, “The fight against corruption is a double-edged sword. Corruption must be fought very seriously, but at the same time it should not scare away economic activists.”
That is a view by no means universally accepted. In fact, many who have analyzed corruption say high levels of corruption actually drive away many potential investors who fear they will not be able to function in a market based on their talents because others less talented but more corrupt will dominate.
Hossaini went on to say, “The Islamic Republic has taken strong measures against corruption. For example, the subsidies reform plan has to a very significant extent solved many of the country’s corruption problems.”
Oddly, he didn’t talk about any investigations or prosecutions of people for corrupt activities. The subsidy program has long been criticized for encouraging immense waste in society, but this was the first time an official had been heard to describe it as a cover for corruption. It wasn’t clear if Hossaini was re-categorizing waste as corruption, or if he was hinting that the regime had found some outright theft in the subsidy program.
President Ahmadi-nejad later addressed the same conference where he emphasized that the capitalist system is the “root cause” of corruption in the world. According to the Islamic Republic News Agency, he also said that the use of the US dollar in trade exchanges was the “root cause” of corruption, although he did not explain how the particular currency used in trade exchanges would have anything to do with corruption.
Ahmadi-nejad also did not mention that according to he German-based Transparency International, the main organization fighting economic corruption, the Islamic Republic is one of the most corrupt states in the world. When Ahmadi-nejad took office in 2005, Transparency International rated 45 percent of the world’s countries as more corrupt than Iran. Last November, it said only 19 percent were more corrupt.
Of Iran’s seven land neighbors, Transparency International said four were less corrupt—Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey—while three were more corrupt—Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan.