“For the fifth consecutive year, PIHO has turned out to be profitable. For this reason, 50% of corporate profits has to be put aside as government share and another 25% should be deposited into government account as tax throughout year,” said Madanipour.

He said a major and maybe the most significant problem of PIHO in recent years was the high amount of liabilities to healthcare centers and other service-providers, which had resulted in a halt in servicing, high servicing costs or scrapping of discounts and cash sales.

He added: “Hopefully in the last calendar year, the Financial Directorate helped collect debts and such challenges were removed.”

“By containing the debts and managing the money stock, the areas under coverage and major financial issues, PIHO settled with all organizations and bodies and reached fiscal stability,” said Madanipour.

He said that most PIHO-run facilities had settled their debts and updated their fiscal documents. He added that PIHO had no outstanding debts.

Madanipour said PIHO was still continuing to pay back its debts to Petroleum Ministry companies. He added: “By the end of last calendar year, PIHO owed nothing to any center including oil companies. That is a big achievement which is unprecedented in the PIHO history.”

Madanipour said in the current calendar year the Iranian National Tax Administration (INTA) moved to verify value-added taxation over a nine-year period ending in March 2017.

He added that the fines levied on PIHO were insignificant compared to exorbitant costs paid by other organizations. 

Madanipour said other measures undertaken by PIHO Financial Directorate included financing for the purchase of medications and medical equipment.

“In order to counter the impact of sanctions, forecasts have been made for surplus medication purchase and necessary money has been provided,” he said, adding that the last calendar year saw no shortage in medication and disposable tools. 

He said the main objective sought by the PIHO Financial Directorate was to reform financial procedures and improve the cycle of operation and arrange the financial situation. 

“By benefiting from the potentialities of staff in this sector and overcoming challenges and problems in the past years, effective measures have been taken,” he added.

Madanipour underlined the necessity of using financial software at various areas, saying: “In order for more transparency, the financial software has been upgraded to incorporate legal issues like Article 161 (bis) and the issue of money laundering.”

“We can say it for sure that we have one of the most perfect and most transparent models in responding all legal needs among all companies affiliated with the Ministry of Petroleum,” he said.

Madanipour said: “With this measure, the faults reported by the Audit Organization were fixed and the audit report submitted to the General Assembly had least errors. Many items incorporated in the previous years’ reports were dropped.”