A Member of Parliament: 25 Billion Tomans of Irregular Salaries Returned

A member of the Legal and Judicial Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly has reported the formation of cases against "a large number" of government managers receiving irregular salaries by the Iranian Court of Audit and stated that so far "25 billion tomans" of these payments have been returned. Mohammad Ali Pourmokhtar made this statement in an interview with Young Journalists Club on Saturday, December 23. Mr. Pourmokhtar mentioned a disagreement between the Court of Audit and the Parliament regarding the determination of the amount of high salaries and added that despite the Parliament's request for the names of "violators and astronomical salary receivers," the Court of Audit "did not provide this report for a long time." According to this parliamentarian, "When criticisms increased, the Court of Audit was forced to prepare a report on astronomical salaries." As this member of the Legal and Judicial Commission stated, the Parliament believed that the maximum salary for government managers should be "14 million tomans," but the Court of Audit "provided reasons and at one stage set 20 million tomans as the basis." Mr. Pourmokhtar continued that later the Court of Audit announced that "the discussion of 14 million or 20 million tomans is no longer relevant, and anyone who receives even one rial above their normal salary will have their case reviewed." This representative, without naming any specific individuals or organizations, reported the formation of "a large number" of cases by the Court of Audit for recipients of high salaries. He stated that "so far, about 25 billion tomans of irregular salaries have been returned to the public treasury." In Bahman 1395 (January 2017), the head of the Court of Audit reported the formation of 87 cases for executive agencies regarding the issue known as "astronomical salaries." Adel Azar added that this number of cases was formed for "397 individuals whose total excess payments amounted to about 23 billion and 300 million tomans," and that "all" of this amount was "fully returned to the accounts of the relevant executive agencies or the treasury." However, this official stated that "we had to investigate who the agencies or decision-makers were that had committed violations in payments?... Our criterion in the previous stage was astronomical or normal, but here we must resort to who made illegal payments?" Mr. Azar also stated that the criterion for determining an "astronomical salary" is 20 million tomans, and that its basis is "the laws of the payment system, especially the Law on Management of Public Services." Last year, the case known as "astronomical salaries," which revealed the salary slips of some government managers, was formed. Government officials acknowledged the existence of these salaries, stating that only a small number of managers received such salaries, but conservative opponents of the government heavily attacked Rouhani's administration using this issue. Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the government spokesman, mentioned in July 1395 (July 2016) in response to attacks on the government regarding the salary slips of some managers, that there was a "think tank" formed with "political motivations" against the government. Meanwhile, some conservatives and judicial officials have stated that the issue of the transfer of municipal properties in Tehran and the "personal" accounts of the head of the judiciary has been raised by reformists and government officials in contrast to the issue of the salary slips of government managers.