Iran: An oil industry that lost its
head By Kimia Sanati
TEHRAN - Iran's key oil industry could
plunge into crisis, oil experts have warned, if
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad does not urgently
appoint a replacement for Seyed Kazem Vaziri
Hamaneh, who was sacked as oil minister two weeks
ago in a major cabinet reshuffle.
"It
appears that the decision to dismiss the oil
minister was taken when Parliament is prevented
from voting for a new minister for a month,
because of the summer holiday recess," a statement by
Oil Ministry experts
said, referring to rumors that Ahmadinejad
intended to postpone presenting his candidate for
as long as the law allows him - three months.
Meanwhile, various projects as well as
negotiations on oil and gas deals have been kept
pending. Oil accounts for 70% of Iran's export
earnings and the country is the world's
fourth-largest exporter.
Hamaneh and
Alireza Tahmasbi, minister of industries and
mines, were dismissed on August 12. The two
ministers were followed on their way out of the
cabinet by Mohammad Sheibani, governor of the
Central Bank of Iran (CBI). The CBI governor had
several times warned about careless expenditures
of oil revenues and expressed his opposition to
reductions in interest rates.
At his
farewell ceremony on August 18, Hamaneh defended
his performance as oil minister during the past
two years and warned that certain (political)
groups were attempting to destroy the structure of
Iran's oil industry in the same way that others
had unsuccessfully tried to liquidate the
country's army soon after the 1978 Islamic
Revolution, the Iranian Students News Agency
(ISNA) reported.
The former minister was
also quoted by ISNA as saying he had not resigned
earlier because he thought he was still capable of
serving and that a replacement fell within the
president's jurisdiction.
Ahmadinejad has
sacked four ministers of his cabinet during his
two years in office. The minister of welfare and
social security and the minister of cooperatives
were dismissed from the cabinet last year. They
were followed by the vice president and head of
the country's Management and Planning
Organization, Farhad Rahbar. The organization
itself was liquidated by the president later and
its responsibilities were transferred to the
President's Office.
"President
Ahmadinejad's inability to solve economic problems
had been predicted by experts early on ... the
effects of his failure are now apparent in spite
of the Parliament's relatively high coordination
with him after two years of carrying out his
visions in the economy," the Kargozaran reformist
daily, which is close to former president Akbar
Hashemi Rafsanjani, said in an editorial that
followed the sackings.
By sacking the
ministers in question, "the president can relate
certain economic failures of the government to the
inefficiency of the sacked ministers ... The two
ministers had never taken any steps against the
policies of the government and the president.
Altering policies may be a more resourceful step
[by the president] than replacing individuals,"
the editorial said.
The Majlis
(parliament) gave Hamaneh its vote of confidence
as oil minister in December 2005 after the
generally sympathetic and supportive hardline
legislative body refused to vote for the other two
candidates proposed for the post by Ahmadinejad,
and another candidate, a close associate and
adviser of the president, withdrew just a day
prior to the Majlis vote, fearing rejection.
"The parliament granted its vote of
confidence to Hamaneh because even the
hardline-dominated parliament could well see the
oil minister had to be someone from among the
ministry executives and well familiar with its
work," an analyst in Tehran said, requesting
anonymity. "The other candidates had no experience
or qualifications in the field but were trusted by
the president.
"Ahmadinejad needs someone
from outside the ministry who has no reservations
towards realizing the president's wish to purge
the ministry of an allegedly corrupt group of
executives connected with his political
opponents," he said. "The group the president
wants out consists mainly of technocrats with
affiliations or sympathetic to Kargozaran Party
and Rafsanjani."
The analyst added that
Ahmadinejad now has three months to use legally
the oil ministry's interim minister, whom he
appointed, to do what Hamaneh refused to do - "get
rid of political opponents and anyone who dares to
resist his visionary plans".
In fiery
speeches delivered during his tours of provinces,
Ahmadinejad has repeatedly talked of his
determination to eliminate "the oil mafia", which
he accuses of corruption and misappropriating
ministry resources.
In an interview soon
after taking office in December 2005, Hamaneh, an
Oil Ministry veteran, denied the existence of any
such mafia and defended the reliability and
financial trustworthiness of ministry executives.
He continued to do so until his last day in
office.
Majlis member Hasan Moradi, who is
a member of its Energy Committee, told Aftab News
Agency that the dismissal of the oil minister had
nothing to do with a controversial deal signed
recently to sell gas to India and Pakistan.
Critics, including former deputy oil minister
Nejad Hosseinian, considered the deal very
detrimental to Iranian interests. Eighty-one
Majlis members have signed a motion requiring the
government to obtain parliament's approval on gas
deals, including the deal already made with India
and Pakistan.
Hamaneh had good relations
with the Energy Committee, reformist legislator
and committee member Valiollah Shojapourian was
quoted by Aftab as saying.
"At a time when
huge and important contracts in the oil industry
are being negotiated and the issue of gasoline
rationing has become very sensitive, dismissal of
the oil minister, whose plans were supported by
the Energy Committee, was wrong and not based on
any kind of expertise," he said.
The
deputy chairman of the Energy Committee, Hossein
Afarideh, told Aftab that the minister had refused
to appoint two people from outside the Oil
Ministry whom the president wanted as a ministry
deputy and as managing director of one of the
ministry's affiliated companies. The minister had
insisted that the individuals lacked the required
qualifications for the positions.
"Ahmadinejad wants to be the sole player
in the game, and all ministers are required to
comply with his wishes even if their reason and
expertise demand otherwise,'' an observer in
Tehran said on condition of anonymity. "The
minister of industries and mines stubbornly
refused to nominate the president's candidates to
certain positions and he, too, was sacked.''
He added that there was speculation
Hamaneh was also sacked because he refused to sell
oil and oil products at reduced prices to
countries Ahmadinejad is trying to court as
allies.
"Selling them cheaper oil is a
good way to achieve this," the observer said.
"Such moves can be totally pointless economically.
For example, to everybody's surprise, a direct air
route was recently established on the president's
orders between Tehran and Caracas. Very few
Iranians ever travel to Venezuela, or other
countries in that region, for that matter. It was
simply a move intended to please [President Hugo]
Chavez."
Critics of Ahmadinejad allege
that his wish to control the Oil Ministry stems
from his wish to use the wealthy ministry's
resources toward electoral ends, particularly with
the upcoming Majlis elections in March. Similar
accusations were made by his rivals in the
presidential race who allege municipality money
was used for his campaign. His successor in the
Tehran municipality has made no secret of the huge
sum of money spent without proper documentation
during Ahmadinejad's tenure, but the issue has
never been investigated.
"From the
president's perspective, the Oil Ministry is
supposed to serve like the financial department of
the municipality [during his tenure as mayor of
Tehran], as a piggy bank at his disposal,"
reformist Shojapourian was quoted by Aftab as
saying.
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