Iran’s anti-corruption campaign has gained a rare momentum. There is regular reporting about new arrests and court cases against corrupt entities, including former ministers and high-ranking officials. 

Considering the country’s political culture and intense factional competition, many have suggested that the campaign is politically motivated and does not address the real sources of corruption. Another explanation could be that the economic impact of the current sanctions has compelled authorities to increase the overall efficiency of governance. No matter what reason we accept, what has emerged is a greater degree of transparency about the corrupt practices and a push to use technology (such as e-government) to contain illegal actions. 

Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh recently said that the focus of corruption in Iran is to take advantage of the country's oil wealth; hence, the focus of any anti-corruption campaign would have to be on the petroleum sector as well.

There are a number of established patterns of corruption in the petroleum sector that are also relatively known to Iranian authorities. Most of the academic research has focused on the concepts of a rentier state and how networks of power try to benefit from the rents at their disposal. However, the patterns of corruption have evolved due to the wide distribution of shady practices and illegitimate interests in different layers of authority. While in the past, select officials benefited from pocketing commissions on contracts, the new practices involve complex commercial and legal schemes and the direct involvement of the relatives and trustees of high-level officials themselves. There has also been a growing trend for parliamentarians to be involved in shady dealings,  particularly involving interests in the petroleum sector. Such practices are also facilitated through external sanctions as well as subsidized fuel prices. This is why the Oil Ministry has set up a working committee to identify the platforms and bottlenecks that lead to corruption within the sector. The most visible corruption case that has occupied the country’s judiciary and political establishment in recent years is that of Babak Zanjani. An analysis of this case shows how an unholy alliance of a dysfunctional political structure, a culture of ambiguity, tendencies toward corruption and external sanctions can rob an economy of billions of dollars of its resources.