13 Trillion Tomans of Ahmadinejad's Government Violations Returned

Mahmoud Sadeghi, a representative from Tehran in the parliament, announced without providing details that the Court of Audit has "returned about 13 trillion tomans of violations" from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government, the former president of Iran. This parliament member provided figures indicating that this action represents about 27 percent of the violations of the ninth and tenth governments regarding oil sales. On Saturday, April 5, in an interview with ILNA news agency, Mr. Sadeghi stated that the Court of Audit is "delaying" in reporting its actions to the public and has not disclosed newer information regarding the "48 trillion toman violation of the ninth and tenth governments." He reported that this court has managed to "return about 13 trillion tomans from the total of 48 trillion tomans of violations of the ninth and tenth governments." According to Mr. Sadeghi, the issue of this 48 trillion toman violation was revealed during the approval of the section related to government debts in the budget for the year 96 and pertains to the "violations" of governmental institutions and organizations, including the police force, during oil sales. Mr. Sadeghi did not provide further details about the "return" of this amount. The reference made by this parliament member could indicate the return of oil sale money to the government treasury. According to reports, in previous years, some institutions like the police force have not deposited the oil money they sold by circumventing sanctions into the treasury. Meanwhile, according to the budget bill for the year 96, a working group from the Court of Audit, the Planning and Budget Organization, the Ministry of Economy, and other "relevant" ministries will be formed to "settle" 26 trillion tomans of "oil violations" of Ahmadinejad's government and over 630 billion tomans of the police's debt to the National Oil Company. This working group must, within six months and after reviewing documents, settle over three trillion tomans from the "difference in domestic sales of oil products" in the years 86 to 88. This working group must also settle about 23 trillion tomans from the "withdrawals beyond legal permits" of the government from oil export revenues for gasoline imports in the years 87 to 91. Prior to the resolution, several representatives, including Masoud Pezeshkian, the deputy speaker of parliament, had reported that a working group had been formed to examine oil revenues from 87 to 91. According to Mr. Pezeshkian, Iran earned about 100 to 120 billion dollars annually from oil sales during the years 87 to 91, but how these revenues were spent is unclear. Adel Azar, the head of the Court of Audit, also mentioned without details that the documents of oil revenues from the ninth and tenth governments are being re-examined in this court. The Court of Audit has published several reports during Ahmadinejad's presidency regarding the non-depositing of oil revenues into the treasury and other government budget violations. The Court of Audit is a supervisory body affiliated with the parliament that oversees how the budget is spent in government agencies. The head and prosecutor of the Court of Audit are elected by the votes of parliament representatives. This court annually presents a report on how the budget of government agencies is spent under the title of the budget execution report to the parliament. According to the budget execution report for the year 91, the police force, despite selling a crude oil shipment worth 185 million dollars and receiving its price, has refrained from paying its debt to the National Iranian Oil Company. Esmail Ahmadi Moghadam, who was the commander of the police force at that time, confirmed in October 93 that six million dollars of this money has not yet been deposited into the government treasury. Eshaq Jahangiri, the first vice president of Iran, stated in late Farvardin that "various institutions and individuals" who received oil from the government during Ahmadinejad's presidency due to sanctions on oil sales have not returned "even a dollar" of that money. Babak Zanjani, who has been sentenced to death, has also been accused in the prosecutor's indictment of having "paid 160 million euros" of the 2.7 billion euros he was obligated to pay to the oil company and spent the rest on personal matters.