Byh.E. Mr. Amin Hossein Rahimi

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Opening Speech

byH.E. Mr. Amin Hossein Rahimi

Senior President, Supreme Audit Court of I.R.Iran

At the Opening ceremony of the7thmeeting of the 10thASOSAI Research Project

Tehran December 16, 2014

Distinguished participants

Dear guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. It is indeed a great honor for the Supreme Audit Court of the Islamic Republic of Iran to host the last meeting of the 10th ASOSAI research Project. First of all, I would like welcome you warmly and extend my deep appreciation to all of you for taking the trouble to attend this important event.

1. It needs to be asserted that corruption and money laundering have turned into a common issue in all the countries worldwide while their negative effects are increasing as well and these issues can be considered as the major concerns for the Supreme Audit Institutions that belong to the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) and Asian Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI).

1. Undoubtedly, corruption will lead to a rise in public expenses and a corresponding reduction in the foreign investment which in turn influences the efficiency and productivity of both publicand private sectors. Hence, all the levels of the governments are urged to guarantee the safety of the communities with accountability and transparency.Yet, this would not be possible without the assistance of SAIs as the most principal auditing bodies in the public sector. Cooperation with other regulatory bodies is also necessary.

1. Similar to other SAIs, the Supreme AudiCourt of Iran, as a professional and independent organization, has always endeavored to promote good governance. In line with this, SAI Iran has continuously played a constructive role among the international bodies, such as INTOSAI and ASOSAI, by strengthening the internal controls in the audited organizations, timely combat with the violators of laws and regulations, interaction with regulatory bodies as well as executive and legislative bodies, inter-organizational and intra-organizational training of the auditors, establishing a technical committee for Combating Corruption and Money Laundering at SAI Iran, along with being a member of the INTOSAI Working Group on Fight against Combating Corruption and Money Laundering. SAI Iran has always played a constructive role in regional and international auditing organizations such as INTOSAI and ASOSAI.
2. To combat corruption and money laundering as well as preventing the spread of the two, the Parliament of Islamic Republic of Iran, on the basis of the anti-corruption spirit dominating the Constitution, enacted the law of “Promoting the organizational sound system and combating corruption” on May 18, 2008 as well as the law “to combat money laundering” on February 31, 2008.

1. As one of the most comprehensive rules on combating money laundry, corruption and terrorism in the world, the Iranian law on “Combating Money Laundering” along with its related regulations entails 39 guidelines in the fields of combating money laundering and financing the terrorism, Securities and Exchange, taxation, insurance, customs, legal professions, and auditing.

1. In order to complement the process of combating money laundry, SAI Iran has planned to audit the implementation of the abovementioned two laws. in addition to this, necessary checklists and guidelines have been developed in this field. It is then expected that the prepared reports here would further lead to transparency of the governance.

1. In order to make the correct use of the capabilities of the bodies and organizations which are efficient in the field of money laundering, SAI Iran has also established close and constant ties with Financial Information Unit (FIU) at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs as the only trustee for combating money laundry. Meanwhile, SAI Iran is negotiating to establish online connection between the servers of Iran’s SAI with the FIU, which would highly help fight against money laundering in Iran if such negotiations are fulfilled. The initiative by SAI Iran could be employed by other members of ASOSAI as a successful model.

1. In fact, Iran’s FIU, as the selected unit by the United Nations is charged with the task of training the experts in combating money laundry in the region. Besides holding internal training sessions and classes, this unit is responsible for training the experts for combating money laundering in the neighboring countries. Moreover, the members of the committee of Combating Corruption and Money Laundering at SAI Iran were awarded certificates by the UN after passing specialized training in the field of combating money laundering in Iran’s FIU.
2. With the purpose of adopting preventive policies against corruption in the governmental bodies, SAI Iran has made use of modern technologies in auditing along with exerting efforts through online supervision and extensive use of information technology to convert the supervision process from the traditional method into modern electronic methods via a comprehensive database called “SANA” that stands for “"electronic supervision system” in Persian Language.

1. Also, in 2014, SAI Iran, as a member of the INTOSAI Working Group on Fight against Combating Corruption and Money Laundering could help the development of the guideline for “preventing corruption” in collaboration with other members of the INTOSAIworking group after two years of non stop activity with the intention of exchanging experiences with other supreme auditing institutions as well as maintaining an active and effective presence in combating money laundering and corruption. Being approved by the Congress of INTOSAI, the above mentioned Guidelines will be applicable by all the members of INTOSAI.

1. As you know, According to Article 2 of Chapter II of the ASOSAI Charter, numerous research projects have been conducted since 1985 in ASOSAI which have been actively participated by the ASOSAI member SAIs. Accomplishing such research projects would contribute to sharing the information and exchanging experience among the members, along with capacity building, development of theoriesfor modern and scientific methods of auditing. To support the scientific researches in the field of auditing, SAI Iran commits itself to participate in all future research projects of ASOSAI as before and to contribute to such projects as an active member.

1. In fact, the 10th ASOSAI Research Project on the topic of "Audit to Detect Fraud and Corruption was initiated in 2012; the same project was chaired by SAI China.In line with the aforementioned research project, five sub -group were formed with the purpose of governing the projects while SAI Iran was assigned as one of the heads of the same sub-groups ( the second sub-group leader). Now in the last session of this research project, we hope that the last years of continuous activity would yield the intended results. Moreover, the active members of project have succeeded in preparing the final report of the project to be submitted to the ASOSAI Assembly for final approval.

1. At this juncture, I hope that using the results obtained through this important project will be helpful in combating corruption and money laundry while promoting the soundness and transparency levels of the governance of the ASOSAI member countries.

1. In the end, I wish this meeting much success. I also wish you a pleasant stay and suggest that while being the guest of Supreme Audit Court of Iran seize the opportunity to become familiar with the activates of SAI Iran . Furthermore, I recommend you to spend some time to acquaint yourself with the Iranian culture, history and civilization.

Thank you very much