Islamic Republic of IRAN’s Country Report:
Evaluation On Current Situation Of Anti-Corruption
10th ASOSAI Research Project
(AUDIT TO DETECT FRAUD AND CORRUPTION)
“Evaluation of the fight against
corruption and money laundering”
By: Mahdi Rezaei
Represented of Iran
This Presentation, Concludes:
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•
Introduction
Gained Results from Evaluation On Current
Situation Of Anti-Corruption
Having returned back from the 2nd meeting of the
10th ASOSAI Research Project in Ho-chi minh City,
Vietnam, we witnessed very good interaction among
research project members including colleagues who
are involved in this project.
Considering the approved framework for action in
the 1st meeting of the 10th ASOSAI Research
Project, our team started to contact with the relevant
Iranian institutions and organizations involved with
the fight against corruption and money laundering.
Also, According to the work plan, we received a
precious proposal questionnaires from Turkey,
Vietnam, India, Russia, Iraq, China, Indonesia,
Philippine, Malaysia and Thailand at the right time
period of the project and we extracted the final
questionnaires and sent them to all members at Jun,
2nd 2013 to all project members, according to time
table.
PART I: NATIONAL ANTI-CORRUPTION STRATEGY
AND ACTION PLANS
1. Iran has Stand-alone anti-corruption programme or anticorruption strategy.
2. These following chapters, covered in the anti-corruption
document in Iran:
-Level of implementation of previous strategy.
-Objectives and priority areas.
-Chapters on prevention and criminalization / lawenforcement measures.
PART I: NATIONAL ANTI-CORRUPTION STRATEGY
AND ACTION PLANS
3. Iran’s anti-corruption strategy have an action plan.
4.These following elements are contained in the Anticorruption action plan in Iran:
-Specific measures for each objective.
-Specific institutions responsible for the implementation of
each measure.
5. Anti-corruption documents and action plans, are
publicized.
PART I: NATIONAL ANTI-CORRUPTION STRATEGY AND
ACTION PLANS
6. These following measures has employed in fighting corruption in
Iran:
-Administrative reforms,
-Development and enforcement of the code of conduct and the code of
professional ethics,
-Penalty forms to heads of the agencies in case of occurrence of
corruption,
-Salary payment via bank account,
-Declaration of assets and income and
-Regulation of returning gift by the public officials.
PART II: ANTI-CORRUPTION AGENCY
7. Iran has an anti-corruption agency (ACA) or a specialist authority
for anti-corruption.
8. These are the main responsibilities/functions of the ACA in Iran:
-Monitor and evaluate the implementation of the anti-corruption
strategy,
-Collect, centralize and exploit the denunciations,
-Identify the causes of corruption and to propose to the competent
authorities of measures to help eliminate it, and
-Anti-corruption screening of legal acts.
PART II: ANTI-CORRUPTION AGENCY
9. Our ACA sometimes re-evaluate bodies/ areas/ activities
having high risk of corruption in order to employ appropriate
measures to mitigate corruption.
10. Our ACA established a hotline and a website in order to
facilitate citizens to complain of corruption actions.
PART III: LEGAL BACKGROUND
11. Iran, criminalizes different types of corrupted activities by various
laws with certain provisions concerning corruption.
12. In the following types of corruption, my country needs to enact
new legislation to better prevent and detect the relevant cases of
corruption:
- Influence peddling and,
- Nepotism.
PART III: LEGAL BACKGROUND
13. We rank from 1 to 3 (most to least) the following types of measures
against corruption based upon our experience in Iran:
(1) Preventive policies and measures,
(2) Detective actions,
(3) Punitive measure.
14. We don’t have formal political parties to governing the financing
them.
15. Iran has laws and regulations governing code of ethics of public
officials.
16. Iran has laws and regulations governing declaration of assets by
public officials.
PART III: LEGAL BACKGROUND
17. Iran has “accounting and auditing standards” for both
public and private sectors.
18. In Iran, public officials have legal obligation for public
officials to report corruption-related offence.
19. In Iran, we rate the implementation of
rules/regulation in combating corruptions in Fair level.
the
PART IV: INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
20. Iran, has been ratified United Nations Convention against
Corruption (UNCAC).
21. Iran has begun the UNCAC peer review process.
22. Iran is one of the members of some anti-corruption conventions,
initiatives or international project (OECD Convention on Combating
Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business
Transactions; GRECO etc.).
PART IV: INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
23. In Iran’s anti-corruption experience, we think about the success
level of international cooperation as bellow:
International Cooperation
Low
Moderate
21.1 Extradition
√
21.2 Mutual legal assistance
√
21.3 Asset recovery
√
21.4 Cooperation with law enforcement
authorities and between national and
international authorities
21.5 Cooperation between national authorities
and the private sector and international
cooperation
High
√
√
PART V: PROMOTING AWERENESS AND OTHER MATTERS
24. The effect of media in fighting corruption: To some extent, media
have helped public to recognize the real situation of corruption.
25.In Iran, the society (including socio-political organizations, socioprofessional organizations, citizens…) are participate in tackling
corruption, actively but not effectively.
26. The level of anti-corruption efforts in my country at the present
time in comparison with those in past years is slightly higher than past
years.
27.Iran , provides anti-corruption educational/training programs for the
Public officials and General public.
PART V: PROMOTING AWERENESS AND OTHER MATTERS
28. In our opinion, because Corrupt people are not severely punished,
the result of the fight against corruption is inhibited.
29. We think that the result of the current fight against corruption, have
not had evident impact nowadays but will have in the future.
30. In Iran, we give the role of citizen participation in fighting
corruption as table bellow:
The role of citizen participation in fighting corruption
23.1 Promoting public sector transparency and accountability and
citizen participation.
23.2 Engaging civil society in corruption prevention efforts, for
example, to invite the civil society organizations (CSOs) in formulation
of anti-corruption policy , research funding about anti-corruption,
dissemination of knowledge, etc.
23.3 Complaint system/ Whistle Blower, and Denunciation: Receiving
reports and complaints on corruption from citizen.
Have
√
None
√
√
PART I: LEGAL FRAMEWORK
1. Money laundering a criminal offence in Iran.
2. There are specific laws and regulations in place covering antimoney laundering in Iran.
3. We think that the law could cover all money laundering aspects to
deal with this phenomenon.
4. We rate the implementation of anti-money laundering law in very
good level.
5. There is a national Financial Intelligent Unit (FIU) functioning as
national center for the collection, analysis, and dissemination of
information regarding potential money laundering offences
PART II: AML BOARD / AUTHORTY
6. There is an official authority / board in our jurisdiction
that takes in hand on anti-money laundering in Iran.
7. These following measures of anti-money laundering that
our agency apply effectively:
-
Identify customer and update customer information
(identification of customer; classification of customer
based on risk level…)
-
Report, provide and save information (report on great
value transaction; report on suspicious transaction)
PART II: AML BOARD / AUTHORTY
8. Our anti-money laundering board / authority enjoy
independence in following aspects in Iran:
-
Legally
-
Financially
-
Recruitment of employees.
PART II: AML BOARD / AUTHORTY
9. Iran’s anti-money laundering board/authority perform following functions:
-
Developing policies and improving legislation.
-
Data collecting, analyzing, evaluation.
-
Supervision.
-
Coordination.
-
Carry out researches, conducting sector-based studies etc.
-
Requesting any kind of information and documents from public institutions and
organizations, natural and legal persons, and unincorporated organizations.
-
Exchange information and documents with counterparts in foreign countries.
PART II: AML BOARD / AUTHORTY
10. The effectiveness of the following types of measures concerning anti-money
laundering based upon our experience in Iran from (most to least) is as follows:
-
Preventive policies and measures (regulations, internal control systems,
international cooperation for deterrence, raising awareness)
-
Detective actions (prosecutions, investigations, audits etc.).
-
Punitive measure (Implementing criminal and disciplinary sanctions etc.)
11. It is possible for our citizens to inform (denounce) the Iran’s AML Board about a
suspected case of money laundering via website of the AML Board.
12. There are updated rules and information about the process of anti-money
laundering in our country.
PART III: FINANCIAL ISTITUTIONS
13. Our country’s AML board requires all financial institutions to have anti-money
laundering (AML) & Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures
14. Our financial institutions (banks etc.) have the following legal obligations to
comply with concerning anti-money laundering law in Iran:
- Internal controls and procedures to comply with regulatory framework concerning
AML
- Thorough client identification
- Having an anti-money laundering officer
- Client due diligence procedures
- Risk focused assessment of customer base and their transactions
PART III: FINANCIAL ISTITUTIONS
- Creating and regularly updating a list of red flags concerning AML
- Prohibition of anonymous accounts
- Employee training programs regarding AML
- Independent audit/compliance function
- Identification and reporting of suspicious activities to the appropriate authorities
- Monitoring program for suspicious or unusual activities
- Policies covering relationships with politically exposed persons consistent with
industry best practices
- Policy prohibiting accounts/relationships with shell banks
- Policy of protecting employees who report any suspicious transactions
PART III: FINANCIAL ISTITUTIONS
15. Our financial institutions (banks etc.) obliged to comply with the following legal
obligations or administrative policies in terms of client due diligence procedures
in Iran:
-
Implementation systems for the identification of its customer, including
customer information in the case of recorded transaction, account opening, etc.
-
Collecting information and assessing its customer’s AML policies and practices.
-
Screening its customer’s information against sanction lists issued by the
government or international bodies.
PART III: FINANCIAL ISTITUTIONS
16. The most common type of suspicious transaction reports
(STR) from financial institutions in Iran is in times that
we see unusually large cash transactions.
17. The financial institutions obliged to comply with FATF
recommendations in Iran.
PART IV: INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
18. We think that our organization ability to cooperate and
exchange financial information at international cooperation
are in good level.
19. Iran has cooperation agreements and protocols to share
financial information and financial transfers if it’s involved
with money laundering
PART V: Education, Awareness and Other matters
20. We give these following roles to citizens in fighting
money laundering:
The role of citizen participation in fighting money laundering
12.1 Promoting public sector transparency and accountability and
citizen participation.
12.2 Engaging civil society in anti-money laundering efforts, for
example, to invite the civil society organizations (CSOs) in formulation
of anti-money laundering policy , research funding about anti-money
laundering, dissemination of knowledge, etc.
12.3 Complaint system/ Whistle Blower, and Denunciation: Receiving
reports and complaints on money laundering from citizen.
Have
None
√
√
√
PART V: Education, Awareness and Other matters
21. We think that the punishments of money laundering incidents are
appropriate.
22. In our opinion, the following factors inhibit the result of the fight
against money laundering in Iran:
- Limitation of citizen’s knowledge about money laundering criminal.
- Lack of competent and experienced staff to handle money
laundering cases.
- Lack of capacity and financial resources of anti money laundering
agencies.
PART V: Education, Awareness and Other matters
23. Our country provides anti- money laundering educational/training
programs for Public officials, NGOs, Financial institutions and
Business associations and private companies.
24. We think that the controlling systems are the keystone and deterrent
for fighting against money laundering.
25. We have high institutions providing training workshops for the
employees of controlling agencies about methods to detect money
laundering.
26. As a result of the current situation in fight against-money
laundering, we have had positive impact, contributed to prevent money
laundering
For Your Attention!