Reformist MP Daryoush Ghanbari told Mahmoud Ahamdinejad in Parliament today that under his presidency, the people of Iran have become "in debt or unemployed."
Speaking at today’s official session of Parliament, Ghanbari told Ahamdinejad: "Rather than oil money reaching Iranian households, they are receiving court orders to repay their debts or report to jail, because your administration has mishandled the restructuring of subsidies."
The Ahamdinejad administration has reduced government subsidies for energy and food staples, but the way it did so has been criticized by the head of the National Auditor’s office, Abdolreza Rahamni, who accused the administration of acting illegally.
Rahmani says benefits to help phase in the subsidy cuts are not being paid from the proper sources, coming instead from band resources and budgets allotted to other government offices.
MP Ghanbari also criticized the administration for "precipitating growing insecurity, restricting free speech and press freedom, and the weakness of diplomatic bodies."
The Ilam representative went on to say that the chief problem of the Ahamdinejad administration is its reliance on "populist slogans and the absence of a logical and professional plan of action to run the country."
He added that the Minority Faction (reformists) in Parliament has warned several times about government inefficiency, but the Majority Faction (conservatives) has taken a political stance against these warnings.
He added however that he is happy that even his conservative peers have come to see the validity of reformist criticisms and are calling for the president to be officially questioned in Parliament regarding administrative irregularities.
The motion to question Ahamdinejad was submitted to the Presiding Board of Parliament in June with the signatures of 100 MPs. But since then, Ahamdinejad supporters have made every effort to stop the motion by convincing MPs to withdraw their signatures.
