Tehran, Iran, Dec. 8
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei called on the heads of the three branches of the Iranian government (the administration, the Majlis and the Judiciary) to fight corruption.
"Take decisive and operational decisions without any consideration [in regards to the guilty official's rank]," Iran's leader said in a message to a national conference on fighting corruption, Iran's IRNA News Agency reported on Dec. 8.
Iran stood at 136th place among 175 countries in terms of the Corruption Perceptions in 2014, Transparency International said in its annual report released Dec. 3.
The Corruption Perceptions index ranks countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption. The index assigns scores of between one and 100, one being highly corrupt and 100 clean.
Iran obtained a score of 27 in the 2014 Corruption Perceptions index, while the country's score in 2013 index stood at 25.
The Islamic Republic has improved its rank by 8 step compared to 2013, meanwhile comparing 2012 Iran's rank has fallen by 3 steps from 133.
The country's rank started falling during the administration of ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005 - 2013).
The worse rank belongs to 2009, when Iran ranked 168.
Iranian Economy Minister Ali Tayyebnia said on Dec. 7 that a 120 trillion rial (about $3.5 billion) bank fraud case has been disclosed in Iran.
"The fraud case took place between 2006 and 2012. However, all the money has been returned to the banking system," he said, Iran's Mehr news agency reported.
Meanwhile, Central Bank of Iran Governor Valiollah Seif said that the fraud case was found last year and was reported to judiciary officials. But, the issue was kept secret due to interests of the bank.
All the people involved in the fraud case have been identified and are being persecuted and one of them have been arrested, Seif added.
Edited by CN