Iran International has acquired new evidence of corruption in Health Ministry tenders involving the son of minister Saeed Namaki.

Information received by Iran International’s ‘Whistle-blower’s Portal’ highlights serious irregularities in the awarding of two contracts for work at Tehran Medical Sciences University to the minister’s son, Ali Namaki. This follows recent - subsequently withdrawn - allegations by a Friday prayer leader about the involvement of the minister’s son in other health projects.

Iran International put the whistle-blower’s evidence to independent sources in Iran who confirmed that the minister’s son, Ali Namaki, had circumvented regulations in winning contracts for the projects at the university.

The whistle-blower told Iran International that the tender fees, usually paid when bidders enter a tender competition, had been paid by the Health Minister’s son two days after the tenders were officially closed and offers from other bidders rejected. The exact date of the tender is not clear.

The evidence supplied to Iran International indicates that Hossein Mobaraki, the Development Deputy of the Medical Sciences University of Iran, was sacked in June last year by order of the National Auditing Organization for failing to follow due legal procedures over tenders involving Ali Namaki.

Separate allegations against the Health Minister’s son were made earlier this month by Hossein Nouri, the Friday prayer leader of Malard, a mainly industrial county of 400,000 near Tehran. In a sermon on September 4, Nouri told his congregation that Ali Namaki had abandoned projects to develop three hospitals in the county despite receiving payment for tenders he won three years ago.

Saeed Namaki wrote an open letter to Ebrahim Raeesi, Iran’s Chief Justice, on September 9 defending his son against the cleric’s allegations. “Please order an investigation to find out if [Nouri] has any evidence that my son is a contractor (which he is not), has received money (which he has not) or if he has abandoned any projects he had undertaken…[and please] condemn him to the highest sentence if these allegations are true,” Saeed Namaki wrote. 

A day later, on September 10, Nouri replied with an apologetic letter in which he claimed he had been misled by “wrong information and false reports.” Nouri asked for forgiveness from the minister and his son, adding he would resign as prayer leader if not forgiven within a week. Namaki duly wrote a second letter, addressing Nouri directly, offering forgiveness and suggesting Nouri had duped by an orchestrated effort to disgrace both him and his son.

While the evidence supplied to Iran International concerns specific tenders, there have been general complaints from un-named government sources in the Iranian media over Ali Namaki failing to complete commissioned work within the health sector.