The development of e-government is the only way to eliminate corruption at all government levels, vice president’s deputy for legal and parliamentary affairs told IRNA this week.
Calling for the establishment of a special body for combating corruption, which would be independent from the three branches of government, Mohammadreza Khabaz said that such a supervisory body could have prevented corruption cases such as the 30-trillion-rial ($1.1 billion) embezzlement that happened during the previous administration.
The former MP said at the time he had asked the government if there was any guarantee that such corruption will not happen again, and that the authorities had answered that “they cannot guarantee that”.
“They did not seem to care at all about the national wealth and resources,” said Khabaz.
Khabaz said that while the former government failed to pay enough attention to the management of taxpayers’ money, the Rouhani administration seems to take the matter seriously. He noted that, however, the government still needs to take precautionary measures to prevent another major corruption from happening.
For example, he suggested establishing online data bases to keep track of the financial activities of the ones who take enormous loans under the pretense of investing in manufacturing purposes.
“The details of their activities must be traceable for the public,” he said, “and then if they fail to do as they have promised, they will have to respond to media and to the public or else.”
Earlier this month, a seminar was held in Tehran on promoting healthy bureaucratic procedures and curbing corruption. In a message sent to the seminar, the Leader had urged the heads of the three branches of the government to “make and execute strong and practical decisions to fight corruption without mercy”, according to IRNA.
