As more fat cat paychecks of senior executives and public-sector bankers surface on social media websites, Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani has called on the Supreme Audit Court to launch an official probe into the controversy.
SAC’s head, Amin Hossein Rahimi told the Parliament’s official news website, ICANA on Thursday that Larijani had asked the body to come up with a detailed report as to how and why the huge salaries were paid and present its findings to Majlis as soon as possible.
The scandal over unreasonably high CEO wages unfolded last month when Mohammad Ibrahim Amin, head of Central Insurance of Iran was forced to resign after some senior executive paychecks surfaced online. Although the Economy Minister Ali Tayyebnia promptly accepted his resignation, he denied any misconduct or misappropriation at the key organization.
However, the latest series of revelations–mostly of handsomely-paid bank CEOs – has alarmed official bodies while calls for an overhaul of public-sector remuneration polices are growing stronger.
“There are different pay policies in state-owned bodies because some are subject to the Civil Service Law and some are not,” Rahimi said.
“The ones that are not under the Civil Service Law have somehow obtained permits to implement pay raises on their own and hence the current pay disparity.”
Rahimi stressed the need for rectifying the payment rules within the remuneration regime in order to bridge the gap between the salaries of staff and senior executives.
The senior ombudsman recalled that a cap on executive compensation and salary is enshrined in the Civil Service Law, “but no such limit for the figure on the final paycheck has been set. So perks, benefits, bonuses and wages at times don’t match with the final pay”
Noting that salaries are not very high in executive bodies such as the ministries, the SAC head added that in some organizations such as banks and insurance companies, internal rules allow for high-level executives to receive payments over and above their normal salaries.
Rahimi hoped Larijani’s directive will lead to a binding ceiling on payments, but admitted that that too would be a temporary solution “until the government can amend the Civil Service Law” which he said would take some time.
