The Supreme Audit Court of Iran (SAC) (Persian: دیوان محاسبات کشور) is a government agency of the

Islamic Republic of Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. Located in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

, it is supervised by the

Iranian Parliament The Islamic Consultative Assembly ( fa, مجلس شورای اسلامی, Majles-e Showrā-ye Eslāmī), also called the Iranian Parliament, the Iranian Majles (Arabicised spelling Majlis) or ICA, is the national legislative body of Iran. The P ...

and dates back to 1906. Articles 54 and 55 of the

Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran ( fa, قانون اساسی جمهوری اسلامی ایران, ''Qanun-e Asasi-ye Jomhuri-ye Eslâmi-ye Iran'') was December 1979 Iranian constitutional referendum, adopted by referendum on 2 ...

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. 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." Since 2010, SAC has been charged with supervising the

Iranian Economic Reform Plan The economy of Iran is a mixed economy with a large state-owned sector and is the largest in the Middle East in terms of nominal GDP. It is the world's 21st largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). Some 60% of Iran's economy is centrally pl ...

. SAC also monitors the Oil Ministry’s deposits into the

state treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or in p ...

on a monthly basis. It is also in charge of the supervision of the

National Development Fund The National Development Fund of Iran (NDFI) ( fa, صندوق توسعه ملی) is Iran's sovereign wealth fund. It was founded in 2011 to supplement the Oil Stabilization Fund. NDFI is independent of the government's budget. Based on Article ...

"$1 billion missing oil money"

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. In December 2010, Supreme Audit Court (SAC) Director

Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli ( fa, عبدالرضا رحمانی فضلی; born 1959) is an Iranian Iranian Principlists, conservative politician and Ministry of Interior (Iran), interior minister of Hassan Rouhani's Government of Hassan Rouhani (201 ...

said that the case was mentioned in a report presented to the

Majlis ( ar, المجلس, pl. ') is an Arabic term meaning "sitting room", used to describe various types of special gatherings among common interest groups of administrative, social or religious nature in countries with linguistic or cultural conne ...

and the report neither called it fraud nor said the money was missing, but only referred to it as "a deficit in the account".

Criticism

According to Freedomhouse "SAC is little more than a ceremonial body because judges appointed by the regular judiciary often overturn its verdicts". They are also not permitted to inspect any of the finances related to the

Revolutionary Guards The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC; fa, سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی, Sepāh-e Pāsdārān-e Enghelāb-e Eslāmi, lit=Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution also Sepāh or Pasdaran for short) is a branch o ...

, which is where most of the corruption within the country is believed to originate. Asked whether

Transparency International Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered association founded in 1993 by former employees of the World Bank. Based in Berlin, its nonprofit and non-governmental purpose is to take action to combat global corruption with civil ...

's recent report on administrative

corruption in Iran Corruption is a serious problem in Iran, being widespread, mostly in the government. Corruption levels Transparency International's 2021 Corruption Perception Index ranks the country in 150th place out of 180 countries, on a scale where lower-ra ...

corresponds to the findings of the Supreme Audit Court, SAC Director Fazli said the report is based on criteria that the SAC does not recognize. "This does not mean that Iran rejects the report and the country should make efforts to fulfill their criteria," he added.

External links

Supreme Audit Court
- Linked to the

General Inspection Office
- Linked to the

Judiciary of Iran The Islamic Republic of Iran was founded after the 1979 overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty by the Islamic Revolution, and its legal code is based on Islamic law or sharia, although many aspects of civil law have been retained, and it is integrat ...

Iran Audit Organization
- Linked to the Ministry of Economic and Finance Affairs

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Supreme Audit Court Of Iran Economy of Iran

"$1 billion missing oil money"

Criticism

See also

Further reading

External links

References