The Islamic Republic of Iran has become signatory to the United Nations Convention against Corruption after over two years of legal work.

According to an Iranian legal website nourlaw.com, the Law of Accession of Iran to the anti-corruption UN convention was ratified through the arbitration of the Expediency Council (EC) and forwarded to the president for implementation. The EC is the high ranking body which takes final decisions on legislation when a dispute arises between the Parliament and the Council of Guardians (CG). All parliamentary legislation must be reviewed by CG to insure its harmony with both the Constitution and the decrees of Islam.
The EC is the high ranking body which takes final decisions on legislation when a dispute arises between the Parliament and the Council of Guardians (CG). All parliamentary legislation must be reviewed by CG to insure its harmony with both the Constitution and the decrees of Islam.
The law which was published on the order of President Ahmadinezhad on 29 Aban 1387 (19 November 2008) goes into effect as 5 December 2008.
Ratification of the legislation by the EC is the latest step in a series of measures taken by Iran for creating a secure domestic business environment. In August this year, the long-awaited privatization law came into effect to promote the vigorous emergence of an Iranian private sector long overshadowed by a centralized economy and dominated by major government corporations for nearly three decades now.
The privatization law contains stipulations which can be used for bridling corruption. Promoting competition and prohibiting the formation of monopolies is also part of the law. Article 44 bans any form of collusion which can create disorder in normal competition and lists the specifics of these actions, like price fixing, limiting the quantity of production, purchase and sale of goods and services in the market, imposing discriminatory conditions in transactions, hoarding, unfair pricing, dumping, making misleading statements etc.
The Law for Combating Money Laundering is another legal anti-corruption stricture which came into force in March 2008. The law defines the penalties and punishments for acquiring, owning, keeping or using the revenues resulting from illegal activities with the knowledge that they are the direct or indirect result of the commission of crimes. Changing, exchanging. or transferring such revenues to conceal their illegal origin with the foreknowledge that the same has been the direct or indirect result of clearly illegal activities or assisting the perpetrator with a view to relieve such person(s) from being subject to the legal consequences and effects of criminal behavior, are considered money laundering crimes as well.
The Law of Value Added Tax which was passed by the Parliament in February 2008 is yet another recent legal enactment aimed at increasing transparency in transactions while denying access to a series of trade practices that lend themselves to corrupt economic dealings.
The common thread running through all the legislation mentioned above is the promotion of transparency, security of investment and waging battle with all those practices that lend themselves to corrupt practices whether in the private or public sphere. What can be ascertained from this serial legislation is that Iran has been steadily positioning itself and is now fully prepared to become a member state of the United Nations Convention against Corruption.
(Source: Press TV)