Measures adopted by the government of President Hassan Rouhani to fight corruption and bring about structural reforms are unprecedented in the Islamic Republic of Iran’s history, a prominent Iranian economist said.
“Previously, different branches of the government used to push for reforms in institutions under each other’s control. But Rouhani’s government has carried out internal reforms first,” ISNA quoted Saeed Laylaz as saying.
His comments were made in reference to the so-called salary scandal. Over the past couple of months, hefty paychecks of top managers at banks and other companies were leaked on the social media, showing their salaries to be dozens of times the average monthly income of an urban household.
In a quick reaction to allay the widespread public concerns, Rouhani announced new regulations about the salaries of top government officials and executives.
As such, Economy Minister Ali Tayyebnia issued a directive to put a cap on the income of bank CEOs and barring them from having access to interest-free loans as they did before.
President Rouhani also called for swift measures to improve current regulations on openness and transparency in state bodies.
