Parliament's Resolution to Address 'Oil Violations' of Ahmadinejad's Government

The Iranian parliament approved a section of the 2017 budget bill that, pending confirmation by the Guardian Council, will establish a task force to investigate 26 trillion tomans of 'oil violations' by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government and the non-payment of oil debts owed to the police force. According to this resolution passed in a public session on Sunday, March 8, the Court of Audit 'is obliged to carry out necessary legal follow-ups regarding the violators.' The task force will consist of members from the Court of Audit, the Planning and Budget Organization, the Ministry of Economy, and other 'relevant' ministries. This task force, as specified in the resolution, must settle over 3 trillion tomans from the 'difference in domestic oil product sales' from 2007 to 2009 within six months after reviewing the documents. Additionally, it must settle approximately 23 trillion tomans from the 'excessive withdrawals beyond legal permits' by the government from oil export revenues for gasoline imports from 2008 to 2012. In this context, Gholamreza Tajgardoon, head of the Budget Consolidation Commission, stated that the previous government had authorization to pay 3 trillion tomans for gasoline imports in 2008 but paid about 6 trillion tomans. Ali Larijani, the Speaker of Parliament, also confirmed these statements, saying that reports of ministers' or the president's violations should be presented while they still have 'political life.' He added, 'The issue was that after they left, no investigations were conducted, which the Court of Audit was instructed to do after their terms ended.' The Speaker emphasized, 'We must confront the violators, and it should not be the case that someone does something and then escapes.' Before the parliament's resolution on Sunday, several representatives, including Masoud Pezeshkian, the Deputy Speaker, had reported that a task force had been formed to investigate oil revenues from 2008 to 2012. According to Mr. Pezeshkian, Iran earned about 100 to 120 billion dollars annually from oil sales during those years, but how this revenue was spent remains unclear. Adel Azar, head of the Court of Audit, also mentioned that the documents regarding oil revenues from the ninth and tenth governments are being re-examined. Throughout Ahmadinejad's presidency, the Court of Audit published several reports regarding the non-deposit of oil revenues into the treasury and other budget violations by the government. This institution had announced in the budget audit report for 2006 that one billion dollars of foreign income was not deposited into the treasury that year. The Court of Audit also stated in the budget audit report for 2007 that the government did not deposit 2.3 trillion tomans from gas sales revenues into the currency reserve fund. According to a report by the newspaper Etemad, the budget audit report for 2008 also indicated that the Ministry of Oil owed 2 trillion tomans to the treasury. In subsequent years, reports regarding violations by Ahmadinejad's government in the budget were published. In this context, Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the spokesperson for Hassan Rouhani's government, stated in February 2015 that 700 billion dollars of the country's assets had been 'eaten and swallowed' over five to six years. The parliament's resolution also called for the task force to address over 630 billion tomans of debt owed by the police force to the National Iranian Oil Company. According to the budget audit report for 2012, the police force, despite selling a crude oil shipment worth 185 million dollars and receiving payment for it, refused to pay its debt to the National Iranian Oil Company. Esmail Ahmadi Moghadam, who was the police chief at that time, confirmed in October 2014 that six million dollars from the sale of two oil shipments worth 240 million dollars had not yet been deposited into the treasury. According to Mr. Ahmadi Moghadam, 180 million dollars of this amount was directly spent on 'salary shortfalls' for police personnel and was not deposited into the treasury. He had previously stated in February 2014 that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had suggested that the police sell oil to cover its 11 percent budget deficit. Eshaq Jahangiri, Iran's First Vice President, stated in late April that 'various institutions and individuals' who received oil from the Ahmadinejad government due to sanctions on oil sales had not returned 'even one dollar' of the money. Babak Zanjani, who has been sentenced to death, has also been accused in the prosecutor's indictment of having paid only 160 million euros of the 2.7 billion euros he was supposed to pay to the oil company, using the remainder for personal matters.