Following calls for a parliamentary probe into the performance of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), the conservative-dominated Seventh Majlis has given top priority to an extensive investigation into the activities of the government's top executive body, the Management and Planning Organization (MPO).
While CBI announced recently that it welcomed any parliamentary probe into its performance, it remains to be seen how the MPO would react to the parliamentary initiative, which comes just five months before the key presidential vote.
Political observers, according to the Persian daily Khorasan, are of the opinion that the recent wave of pressures from lawmakers on the outgoing Khatami administration looks odd. They suspect that there might be strong political motives behind parliament's vigorous push for expelling leading reformers from the administration.
Earlier, Seyyed Mohammad Mirmohammadi, who heads the MPO Probe Committee in the Majlis, called on all economic experts to cooperate with parliament in this respect.
Parliamentarians are planning to probe the MPO decision to halt employment in government organizations and job cuts, downsizing the government, discrimination between retired staff and the employed, salary disparities, etc.
The Majlis Cultural Commission is also planning to launch a probe into the organization's performance regarding tribal issues.
Iraj Nadimi, a member of the Majlis Economic Commission, says one of the most important issues that would be brought up in the MPO probe would be the present complications regarding living standards of government employees.

Iran's population was 33 million in 1978, but is now close to 70 million.

He said lawmakers are also planning to review government's performance in the past 25 years to see how successful it has been in implementing the Constitution.
Nadimi, who is vice-chairman of the investigative committee, is of the opinion that the probe would produce no concrete results.
"This probe belongs only to the election season and will in the end be sent to the archives without having produced any results," he observed.

Different Probe
But Abdulreza Mesri, vice chairman of Majlis Social Commission, says the MPO probe would be different.
"This is the first year of the Seventh Parliament and it has several opportunities to launch such probes," he says, stressing that a working group has been set up in parliament to this effect.
"The working group has so far had several good sessions and has committed the members to create three-man teams to collect the required evidence and information," he added.
The lawmaker expressed hope that the probe, which he said would be announced officially within the next two months, would produce positive results for the people.
Saeed Abutaleb, a member of Majlis Cultural Commission, also believes that MPO must be held accountable for the government's inattention to tribesmen and herdsmen.
"The share of subsidies and financial resources and facilities to tribal people remains poor," he said, adding that MPO has done little to provide them with adequate cultural, social, health and security facilities.
Parliament has prepared an urgent plan seeking to withdraw $200 million from the Foreign Exchange Reserve Fund for providing funds needed to render services to tribesmen across the country.

During 2000-2003, some 1.74 percent of government jobs had been slashed.

Response
Mahmoud Askari-Azad, deputy head of MPO for management and human resources development affairs, is of the opinion that parliamentarians should have held a meeting with the MPO authorities and questioned them before rushing to propose a probe.
He says the government has been implementing the Comprehensive Administrative Program since 2001.
"This program has seven key priorities including, downsizing the government; ameliorating state management structures, changing patterns for state-sponsored services, giving a boost to supervisory and assessment efforts, institutionalizing meritocracy in appointing managers, reforming the employment system and training specialized workforce," he said, adding that the government has not halted employment in state organizations, rather it has limited the practice as part of efforts to downsize itself.
The Third Plan (2000-2005) stipulated a five-percent decline in the number of government employees. It was also decided that new staff would be employed to replace fifty percent of those who retired.
During 2000-2003, some 1.74 percent of government jobs had been slashed.
Askari-Azad blames the implementation of human resource development schemes in the education, health and banking sectors for the government's failure to meet job-cut objectives.
He said the government has managed to meet the demands of retirees.
"We have created a balance in payments to retired personnel and no one can claim otherwise since there are no debts that have not been paid off," he observed.

Government has created a balance in payments to retired personnel.

Inefficiency
A senior MPO official, who asked not to be named, told Khorasan that parliament's political decision would be resolved through political mechanisms.
He, however, agrees with legislators that the organization has failed to activate the government sector and that the state organizations have inefficient people on the payroll.
"We have turned the government into a large venue where lazy people have gathered," he said, stressing that such personnel would not get paid anywhere else in the world.
He said Iran's population was hardly 35 million in 1978, while the population has now doubled and the government has enlarged by 5.5-fold.
"In other countries the ratio of current budget to development budget is 30 to 70 percent, while the same is 80 to 20 percent in Iran," he said, adding that while MPO has 2,000 personnel, an organization with the same functions in France is run with a maximum of 85 staff.
He reiterated that the government should employ efficient workforce.

CBI Probe
Parliament is apparently bracing for an all-out attack on the pro-reform government as a senior lawmaker very recently threatened to probe the Central Bank of Iran after Akbar Komeijani, deputy CBI governor for economic affairs, expressed concern about the adverse impacts of the parliamentary decision. He called on lawmakers to think twice before it was too late to reverse the decision.
Mohammad Khoshchehreh also advised CBI not to enter "political games."
Experts contend that the conservative-dominated parliament's decision would lead to a rise in inflation as it would compel the government to withdraw more money from Foreign Exchange Reserve Fund.
There are also growing concerns about the adverse impacts of the drive by parliamentarians for a huge cut in bank rates.
CBI rejected accusations it is trying to give political hue to the parliamentary decision to keep prices of major consumer goods unchanged during March 2005-2006.
CBI further noted that it is among the very few state organizations to issue transparent reports about its performance on a regular basis.
"CBI has so far been probed twice in 1989 and 2002 and is ready for the third," it said, adding that the doors of the bank are always open to parliamentarians.

No doubt the Islamic Republic of Iran has secured a top place among many a state-run and free economies in the world in terms of systematization of auditing rules and regulations. In that respect the country's advancement in standardization of auditing practices and its efforts to systematize such rules and regulations--even though there is further room for progress--are indeed commendable.
The last two decades of Iran's auditing strides is indebted to the efforts of those who paved the necessary legal grounds as much as to the academics who vigorously compiled and put to test such standards. Likewise, the State Audit Court (SAC) has played a key role in such an impressive development, Persian daily Sharq reported.
Following ratification of its articles of association in 1987, the SAC became known as the sole specialized and official body for compilation of auditing and accounting rules and regulations nationwide. This made it mandatory for all enterprises to abide by such rules and regulations in their year-ending accounts and financial reports.
As its duty the SAC managed to take several creditable measures; in 1992 the Committee for Compilation of Auditing Guidelines started a 'jihad' to compile necessary standards in a bid to sort out the existing auditing obstacles. The committee published draft 9 of the manifesto on auditing guidelines together with guiding principles for devising and introducing financial statements. Later in 1996 it published draft 5 of the manifesto.
Based on recommendations received from its members and auditing aficionados a set of guidelines was revised and ratified as the first ever official compilation and became binding by law as of March 20, 1999 for two consecutive years.
As per the SAC executive board's ratification, the committee changed its name to the Committee For Compilation of Auditing Standards and produced and presented to the technical committee of the board its first draft of auditing standards' compilation for assessment and ratification. The draft was based on the feedbacks received from educational programs on auditing guidelines, developments in international standards of auditing as well as expert recommendations at the management office of the Committee For Compilation of Auditing Standards.
After necessary reviews and amendments the technical committee ratified and presented the draft to the executive board of the SAC for final approval. Following the approval, the auditing standards of 1-22 were enforced in all financial reports as of March 2001. Further the committee drafted three other auditing standards that were implemented from the Iranian year March 20, 2002.
In recent times, the committee has managed to compile and publish two more standards for further assessment. So far the country's official auditing committee has been successful in setting up an impressive stronghold for the auditing profession nationwide. Let's hope such a magnificent advance will continue for the years to come.