This article was published in May 2020 in Fars News Agency.

Legal Ambiguity about the Secret Budget Settlement in the Iran 2018 Settlement of Budget Report

The last budget settlement act before the 1979 Revolution was passed in 1973. In the post-revolution era, the Budget Settlement of the Years after the Revolution Act was passed on 13 July 1986 aiming to settle the budget which had been halted since 1974. This Act determined how budget settlement reports should be prepared from 1982 onwards; the budget settlement for the period of 1974 to 1982 was then abandoned. The settlement of the oil budget was secret before 2004. Also recently, together with the report by the National Development Fund of Iran, the oil settlement report was prepared in a secret fashion within the Iran 2018 Settlement of Budget and submitted to the president of the Islamic Parliament of Iran.

Considering the criteria released regarding International Budget Partnership (IBP) to evaluate the budgetary transparency, Iran earns a grade of 24 out of 100.

The measure taken by the IRI Supreme Audit Court; in incorporating secretly both the oil and the National Development Fund of Iran settlement report in the Iran 2018 Settlement of Budget Report, is inconsistent with what is stipulated at the last part of Article 55 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which goes as this: “Settlement of Budget Report must be accessible to the public.” This measure needs to be taken according to a legal license, which is missing in the said report. Basically in laws regarding the settlement of budget, there are no clear criteria for ascertaining the secret parts of the settlement of budget, and preparing and submitting the final report of these secret parts to the Islamic Parliament of Iran.

Based on this report, the predicted Iranian budgetary resources in 2018 have been achieved about 133.3%. Indubitably a part of this success is attributed to the oil sale against the sanctions whose imposition explains why both the oil and the National Development Fund of Iran settlement report in the Iran 2018 Settlement of Budget Report must be prepared confidentially.

If these conditions persist; for maintain the importance of the accessibility of the settlement of budget report to the public as specified in the last part of Article 55 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, it is recommended that the criteria regarding the secret parts of the settlement of budget report, the reference for its ascertainment, its preparation, final examination and submission to the Islamic Parliament of Iran are to be determined by amendment of Article 219 of the Law on the Internal Regulations of the Islamic Parliament of Iran with the new legislation.