Iran International has received the transcript of a meeting at the “Coronavirus Operation Management Headquarters”, which reveals that the Supreme National Security Council has decided that the parliament and the judiciary will no longer monitor the budget of the National Coronavirus Taskforce.

This decision had remained secret until now, and according to the transcript, all the expenses related to the coronavirus outbreak are now overseen by the National Committee. All executive organizations are ordered to report to the committee.

About ten days after this meeting, the Supreme Audit Court of Iran announced that over $4.82 billion of government budget has disappeared in 2018.

According to the transcript that Iran International has received, in a meeting of the coronavirus taskforce, the nine attending officials decided that the National Committee must oversee the purchase of equipment and goods, and a committee of three must decide on the price.

This decision is being revealed at a time when on Wednesday, 17 former Ministry of Health officials wrote a letter to the Minister of Health, Saeed Namaki, and warned him about the “systemic corruption” in his ministry.

Hamidreza Jamshidi, one of the officials present at the meeting, was previously named in another classified document published by Iran International as the chairman of Barekat Foundation, which is under the control of the supreme leader, and was involved in the coronavirus test-kit scandal.