Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Jan. 6, 2019 – Hassan Ghazizaeh Hashemi, Hassan Rouhani’s former health minister, confessed in a recent government session, “For two years, the poor people have been moving around in rain and snow, from one hall to another. The people are setting up tents in the street. At the end, we took 350,000 billion rials (approx. $3.5 billion) from the people’s pockets and we didn’t tell them anything. And we say with pride that we managed the issue.”
Ghazizadeh Hashemi, who quit last week over budget cut disputes, said, “According to our friends in the Planning and Budget Organization, the entire amount that was spent on the health development plan in the 11th and 12th governments (Rouhani's tenure) was 164,000 billion rials (approx. $1.6 billion) and the figures others are mentioning are unreal.”
The former health minister added, “350,000 billion rials was spent on corrupt financial and credit institutions, on people who were extortionists and corrupt, on institutions such as Samen al-Hojaj, which misuse the name of religious figures. Dr. Rouhani stated in a public speech that 350,000 billion rials were spent on these institutions. Look at how these institutions destroyed the reputation of the country.”
Ghazizadeh Hashemi tried to distance himself from the corruption that is plaguing the entirety of the Iranian regime and said, “In my short life, many things have happened. These problems aren’t new. Until today, I didn’t deem it suitable to make these problems public. I wrote to my boss on several occasion. I haven’t told many of these things to anyone and there’s no need to say it because it won’t solve anything.”
Ghazizadeh Hashemi tried to wash his hands of the thievery and embezzlement happening in the government he served and lay the blame on his former colleagues, saying, “Some want to give bribes to the doctors, they want us to force the people to buy medicine and medical equipment from outside of hospitals, they want us to import low quality medicine and equipment in the market, they want us to bring corrupt extortionists into the health system. But I’m not this type of person. It was wrong for me to become their colleague.”
