The Supreme Audit Court’s Scope of Discretion in the Legal System of Islamic Republic of Iran

hough creating independent financial supervisory institutions is accepted in the general legal systems of the world, audit institutions’ jurisdiction and powers are determined according to the specific requirements of each legal system.  One key point about the duties and powers of the Supreme Court of Audit- which Iran’s Constitution provides the basic framework for and defines- is the supervisory discretion of this financial institution. This research seeks to address the scope of the discretion of the court while it monitors, reviews, and controls sources and revenues and expenditures specified in the national budget. This paper, in an analytical way, using library method,  suggests that adopting extensive and limited approaches with respect to the discretion of the Court, finds out that the Court’s supervision is not limited to what is prescribed in the budget law. The Court is constitutionally mandated to exert its supervision on “all the accounts of ministries, government institutions and companies as well as other organizations that draw, in any way, on the general budget of the country”. The third approach- laid out in the Court’s bylaw- is about exercising supervision on Public Property. This may be defendable through an extensive interpretation of the Constitution but is against the text of the Constitution which makes it difficult to embrace it.