 Many of his close associates were appointed to positions for which they have no obvious qualifications, and "billion dollar no-bid contracts" were awarded to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an organization with which he is strongly associated.According to Najmeh Bozorgmehr of the "Financial Times", "Iran has a long history of cronyism and corruption under its monarchies and the Islamic Republic.But the scale of corruption under Mr. Ahmadinejad was of a different order, according to both reform-minded and conservative politicians."