Press TV - Iran's National Audit Office has received no proof to confirm that a missing $1 billion in oil revenues has been returned to treasury.

A National Audit Office report issued for the parliament (Majlis) has revealed that $1.058 billion of surplus oil revenues in the 2006-2007 budget has not been returned to the treasury or the foreign exchange reserves.

"Unless we receive the proper document from the central bank regarding the missing oil revenues, the issue of the missing oil money will be open to the National Audit Office's investigation," Fereydoun Hemmati, the office's deputy head on the Iranian parliament's budget affairs, said in an interview with Press TV.

In the past three years, Iran ran a surplus of oil revenues due to increases in the price of crude. According to the law, any additional oil income must be transferred to the treasury or the foreign exchange reserves.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad severely criticized the Audit Office's report and said such actions mar the government's image and incite the public against his administration.

President Ahmadinejad's remarks sparked the fury of both lawmakers and economists, who had called for an investigation into the case.

"We are ready to reconsider our stance once we receive the central bank's report on the issue," Hemmati said.

The head of the Audit Office Abdolreza Rahmani said earlier in February there were 2,000 cases of infraction in the 2007-2008 budget, which have been overshadowed by the missing oil money report.

... Payvand News - 02/26/09 ... --

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