Iran’s Supreme Audit Court Submits Annual Report, Visits Several Provinces

Iran’s Supreme Audit Court (SAC) submitted its 2017 Annual Audit Report to parliament in accordance with the national constitution. Dr. Adel Azar, SAC President, thanked efforts put forth by colleagues as part of his summary report presentation, which was divided into three sections: (1) revenues and expenditures; (2) single article budget law notes; and (3) recommendations to improve the budgeting process. Dr. Azar cited urgent necessary actions on important issues, including resource allocation for national construction projects, budgeting for state-owned enterprises, banks and government-affiliated institutions; and state aid to public companies experiencing losses.

Dr. Azar traveled to several provinces across the nation throughout the year, where he called special attention to performance audits across all provinces and identified key challenges and opportunities in each. In the Fars province, an implementation of unconventional salaries was noted. Dr. Azar said the SAC was able to swiftly deposit illegally paid monies to the public treasury due, in part, to new policies on continuous preventive, guiding and authoritative financial supervision. Similarly, the SAC President noted unconventional salaries paid to some authorities in the Kermanshah province, where he emphasized the importance of safeguarding public resources. In the Ardabil province, Dr. Azar stressed the SAC’s mission, adding the SAC audits all organizations receiving state funding. In the Razavi Khorasan province, Dr. Azar highlighted the electronic audit system currently in place (Sana) with a desire to quickly resolve any potential problems with its use.