Rouhani made the comments today at a meeting of an anti-corruption campaign aired live on state television.
They come as Iran is in the middle of a plan to decentralize and privatize its economy.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei repeatedly has warned officials over possible corruption during implementing the program.
In May, Iran executed a billionaire businessman Mahafarid Amir Khosravi, convicted of being at the heart of a USD 2.6 billion state bank scam in Iran, the largest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.