November 14-2014
Iran’s Management and Planning Organization (MPO) has been reestablished by order of President Rohani, seven years after it was dissolved by his predecessor, Mahmud Ahmadi-nejad.
The MPO, called the Planning and Budget Organization (PBO) under the Shah, was created in the 1950s to draw the “best and brightest” men and women into the government. It was long seen as the brains of the establishment under both the monarchy and the revolutionary regime, providing expertise and careful analysis behind government programs. But Ahmadi-nejad reportedly did not like its criticisms of some of his plans.
The outlines of the program to revive the MPO were agreed on during a Monday session of the State Supreme Administrative Council in Tehran, which was presided over by First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri.
The reestablishment of the MPO, “on the one hand, had been a campaign promise of the President, and, on the other hand, this organization is considered a necessity for developing countries, which have mid-term and short-term plans for development,” the vice president said.
He also underlined the need for the efficient management of state affairs as well as a balanced and planned development of the country, terming the revival of the MPO and removal of its weak points “a necessity.”
In July 2007, Ahmadi-nejad dissolved the MPO and established a new budgeting body directly under his own control. Ahmadi-nejad’s action sparked a flurry of criticism among political and economic circles.