Critic Says Iran’s Raisi 'Most Inefficient' President In Four Decades

A reformist politician and former official has characterized President Ebrahim Raisi's team as the most inefficient Iranian government since the 1979 revolution.

Gholam Ali Rajaei, also an academic at the University of Tehran, has charged in a February 12 interview published by Rouydad24 website that some of Raisi's aides and cabinet ministers lack executive experience even at middle-management level to occupy posts in any government.

Rajaei said that Iranians are now disillusioned and desperate and have lost their confidence in the government as Iran’s economic crisis gas seriously lowered their living standards.

Similar warnings have multiplied since late 2021 as Iran’s annual inflation hovers around 40 percent and the middle class becomes impoverished.

Meanwhile, Rajai suggested that Raisi should fire his ministers of economy, labor, and industry at once as they are responsible for the administration's most significant weaknesses.

Zaynab Ghabishawi, one of the website's editors added that economic problems, lack of a roadmap, and the performance of incapable managers are to be blamed for the government's inefficiency. Rajaei added to the journalist's comment that most of Raisi's aides and cabinet ministers have never worked even at the level of director generals before being appointed as ministers. He also noted that Raisi himself has spent his entire career in the Judiciary and has no executive experience.

The academic added that although some of Iran's problems have their root in the performance of the previous government, not only the current administration has not been able to improve the situation in the past six months, but it has become worse. "When is the Raisi administration going to launch the plans he was talking about during his election campaign?" Rajai asked.

Rajaei's opinion is corroborated with criticisms made by other observers. The head of Iran's Consumer Support Organization, a price watchdog based in Tehran, told Aftab News website on Sunday that prices of 84 thousand goods in the Iranian market have risen by 120 percent during the past months.

Even some of Raisi's ministers are unhappy about rising prices. Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi told state television on Saturday that "rising prices in Iran follow no particular logic. Price rises are normally an outcome of scarcity, but prices in Iran rise while there are plenty of goods in the markets."

Vahidi seemed to ignore the rising cost of production as a result of sanctions and other economic factors. He also ignored the fact that the rise in commodity prices inevitably lead to inflation for a range of goods.

The government's solution for the problem is returning to the 1990s punitive regulations that call for the punishment of traders and businesses rather than addressing the root cause of the problem.

Iranian lawmakers have repeatedly called for the impeachment of the same economic ministers Rajaei has mentioned in his interview but knowing that it does not have a true plan to address the problem even if ministers are replaced, the government has been exerting pressure on the parliament to shelve the petitions for impeachment.

Referring to Raisi's much-criticized habit of issuing orders without following them up, Rajaei warned him that "It is time for action, not to issue orders!"