Nasser Seraj who was addressing a meeting in eastern city of Semnan on Sunday, told reporters that some details of the Judiciary and the Inspectorate Organization would not be publicized in the media for security reasons; “however, I ensure you that the Organization pursues the issue to the end seriously; the latest developments of inordinate salary bills of some government high officials, better known as Salary Bill Scandal, would be remain undisclosed,” he added.
“Until we reach to a definite names as culprits, no name would be given to the media as those who should be officially indicted.”
Seraj however said that about $ 1.7mn of the money squandered in the scandal had been restored to the public treasury; “there is an unprecedented level of transparency in the Judiciary’s actions on inspecting the scandal and soon, the outcomes of the case will be publicized,” he told reporters.
Seraj also added that the amount restored had been abused by bank directors, heads of insurance organizations, and other heads of subsidiaries of the government; “efforts have been waged to return the whole money (which would be amount to lump sum of millions) to be restored to the public treasury, if collected illegally by the officials; the collective efforts by the Judiciary and the Inspectorate Organization in addressing the scandal are laudable indeed,” he told the press.
The case has been a source of controversy and much media speculation. Earlier last week, the Judiciary spokesperson however had provided an opaque prospect of the Salary Bill Scandal case, implying that the Judiciary had only been tangentially engaged in the case, since the cabinet had promised to address the issue within the government.
Speaking on September 18 press conference, Ejei provided scanty information on inordinate Salary Bill Scandal and recent Municipality squandering of public property given to relatives and cronies in drastically lower prices; “in Salary Bill Scandal, the government had told Judiciary that it would address the case within the government, thus the Judiciary would not intervene more than it would otherwise; we still wait any verdict by the government on the possible violations of the law. Part of the scandal should be addressed through new legislation which effectively rules out possibilities and loopholes by which abuse of public money becomes legitimate,” Ejei detailed.
“So far, no single person has been specified to the Judiciary to be indicted; apart from some cases of changes in positions or deposing some officials no one has been seriously indicted; only roughly $830,000 of total of millions abused have so far been restored to the public treasury," he said.
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