An Early Attempt for Public Financial Accountability in Iran: Formation and Failure of the Commission for Implementation of Remittances

To report the performance and the failure of the Commission for the Implementation of Remittances as an early attempt by the Parliament after the 1906 Constitutional Revolution for monitoring public expenditures. Method and Research Design: Data presented is based on Archival records of the Ministry of Economics and Finance held at the National Archives of Iran and the National Assembly Proceedings. Findings and The chronic and pervasive corruption in public finance made the members of the newly established parliament of the post-constitutional revolution in 1915 to create a regulatory body – a parliamentary commission- mandated to monitor the expenditure of the public money. The commission was given special power to prevent unlawful expenditures. However, weakness of the government as the result of the occupation of the major parts of the country by Russians, Ottomans, and the British during WWI, incompliance to the commission's rulings by the government departments, limited capacity of the Commission to address all cases, and focusing on minor instead the major cases, ended in the failure of the Commission to fulfill its mission. The commission was dissolved in 1922, replaced by the Financial Supervision Commission.