Supreme Audit Court of Iran

Iran

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Iran

Leadership Superme Leader Ali Khamenei Assembly of Experts Executive President (List) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Guardian Council Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi Cabinet Cabinet of Iran Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili High Council for Cultural Revolution Legislative Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Supreme Audit Court City and Village Councils Judicial Supreme Court Sadeq Larijani Attorney General Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejehei Justice System Human rights Constitution Elections Elections in Iran Presidential Elections Parliament Elections Referendums Political Parties Political parties in Iran Reformists Conservatives Foreign Policy Foreign relations Politics of Iran

Other countries · Atlas Politics portal view • talk • edit

The Supreme Audit Court of Iran (SAC) is a government agency of the Islamic Republic of Iran. SAC is located in Tehran and dates back to 1906.

Articles 54 and 55 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran define the objectives and responsibilities of SAC, the most important duty of the organization being the preparation of the government's Budget Liquidation Report, as specified by article 55 of the Constitution.^[1] The state body is tasked with controlling "financial operations and activities of all ministries, institutions, government companies and other organizations which in any manner whatsoever benefit from the state budget."^[2]

On November 21, 2008 President Ahmadinejad proposed that lawmakers consider a bill, based on which the wealth and property of all officials who have held high governmental posts since 1979 could be investigated.^[3]

SAC, which is supervised by the Majles of Iran, is little more than a ceremonial body because judges appointed by the regular judiciary often overturn its verdicts.^[4]

SAC reports

In May 2009, SAC reported that 1 billion was missing from Oil Stabilization Fund. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the issue of the 'missing' $1 billion from the country's currency reserve fund is in fact an "accounting error."^[5] However, the claim prompted a firm response from SAC which rejected any talks of "accounting errors" and rebuked the government for providing "insufficient answers" in the case of the missing $1.058 billion oil money.^[6] SAC defended both methodology and accuracy of its work and revealed that there had been 1463 cases of infractions regarding the country's 2007-2008 budget.^[7] According to SAC's report, illegal payments to some government officials accounted for a large part of the infractions while there were also cases in which the government had acted against the articles of the budget law.^[8][9]

General Inspection Office (GIO) reports

Based upon Iran's Constitution, the GIO is in-charge for regular controlling and supervising executive bodies, military and disciplinary forces, state-run institutions and companies, municipalities and their subsidiaries, public notary chambers, foundations of public utility, revolutionary organs, and institutions whose financial resources totally or partially belong to the government.^[10]

In 2009, Iran's General Inspection Office (GIO) informed that Iranian banks have some USD 38 billion of delinquent loans, while they are only capitalized at USD 20 billion.^[11] While most Iranians have difficulties obtaining small home loans, 90 persons have managed to secure collective facilities totaling $8 billion from banks.^[12]

News media reports

According to Farda newspaper, the difference between President Ahmadinejad administration's revenues and the amount deposited with the Central Bank of Iran exceeds $66 billion.^[13] This is a large number as it is equal one-tenth of Iran's total oil revenues since the 1979 revolution and is broken down as follows:

• $35 billion in imported goods (2005-2009),
• $25 billion in oil revenues (2005-2008),^[14]
• $2.6 billion in non-oil export revenues,
• $3 billion in foreign exchange reserves.

See also

• President Ahmadinejad
• Economy of Iran
• Central Bank of Iran
• Ministry of Petroleum of Iran
• Bonyad
• Ministry of Intelligence of Iran
• Privatization in Iran

Further reading

• Country Report "Anticorruption and Transparency" - Iran (2007) - Freedom House
• President calls for concord between supervisory and executive organs

External links

• Supreme Audit Court - Linked to the Iranian Parliament
• Iran's General Inspection Office (also called "State Inspectorate Organization") - Linked to the Judiciary of Iran
• Iran Audit Organization - Linked to the Ministry of Economic and Finance Affairs

References

1. ^ http://www.dmk.ir/en/doc/brochure.pdf
2. ^ http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=97259&sectionid=351020101
3. ^ http://www.payvand.com/news/08/nov/1207.html
4. ^ http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=140&edition=8&ccrcountry=158&section=84&ccrpage=37
5. ^ http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=97259&sectionid=351020101
6. ^ http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=97259&sectionid=351020101
7. ^ http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=97259&sectionid=351020101
8. ^ http://www.iran-daily.com/1388/3375/html/economy.htm
9. ^ http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=96315&sectionid=351020101
10. ^ http://www.payvand.com/news/09/nov/1019.html
11. ^ http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=108239&sectionid=351020102
12. ^ http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=104317&sectionid=351020102
13. ^ http://www.payvand.com/news/09/oct/1266.html
14. ^ http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars/2009/09/23/Irans-massive-oil-revenue-discrepancies/UPI-38201253740655/