Tehran Municipality is buying material and equipment for its urban expansion projects from the Iran Mercantile Exchange, a deputy mayor said Sunday.
Abolfazl Fallah said the move should help promote financial transparency in the municipality and help cut costs – among key issues that have plagued the bloated bureaucracy running the affairs of the huge metropolis for years.
“Tehran Municipality is working to promote financial transparency, cut costs and eliminate middlemen by procuring its needs from the IME,” he was quoted as saying by imereport.ir.
“We are coordinating with the IME to secure most of what we need through the IME”.
He said the IME is an “open and transparent” organization that should be tapped by the municipality to make use of its financial resources.
IME is a commodities exchange in Tehran founded in 2006 to host deals in farm, industrial and petrochemical products in the spot and futures markets.
Fallah added that the TM has started purchases from the IME. For the first time in March, it bought 1,900 tons of bitumen and 506 tons of rebar from it.
“The municipality later bought more than 7,000 tons of bitumen and is planning other purchases”.
On the other merits of buying from the IME, he pointed to the possibility of monitoring prices, ensuring the credibility of suppliers, the guarantees it offers for timely delivery and the prospects of buying on credit.
