Auditor General clarifies audit issues at NA’s 7th session

Auditor General of the State Audit Office of Vietnam (SAV) Ngo Van Tuan on June 5 answered deputies’ questions regarding audit issues at the National Assembly (NA)'s 7th session.

Clarifying measures to deal with the overlapping between audit and inspection activities, Tuan said that the Inspection Law states that on the basis of a report on the auditing plan, the Government General Inspectorate is responsible for guiding inspection agencies of ministries, sectors and agencies to build their own inspection plans to avoid overlapping.

Recently, the SAV has followed the motto of concise and high-quality auditing, focusing on settlement audits and topics serving the supreme supervision of the NA and People's Councils, thus reducing overlapping with inspection agencies.

Accordingly, the building of the annual audit plan is based on the audit development strategy approved by the NA Standing Committee, aiming to audit 100% of budget settlement reports ministries, sectors and localities’ by 2030. To date, local audits have completed by about 91% and central audits by 87%, he said.

Giving additional explanations, Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc said that there are two auditing systems - the SAV carrying out auditing for agencies having state assets and capital, and independent audit system providing auditing services to businesses.

Instead of directly implementing audit activities, the Ministry of Finance manages the audit quality through the issuance of mechanisms, policies and strategy on inspection, examination and supervision of these audit organisations, he said.

Phoc said that in the past two years, the ministry has inspected 20 audit firms and 62 audit dossiers. In 2024, the ministry aims to examine 20-24 enterprises, he said.

NA Chairman Tran Thanh Man said that the SAV plays an important role in examining and controlling the management and use of public finance and public assets, helping to ensure State financial discipline and the effective managing and use of public finance and assets, helping the Party and State prevent corruption, waste, negative phenomena and practice thrift.

He asked the SAV, Government, ministries and sectors to absorb opinions from NA deputies and give effective solutions to existing problems.

The SAV should speed up the implementation of the State Audit Development Strategy to 2030, while focusing on auditing activities following the approved plan, especially issues of public opinion, NA deputies and voters’ concern, increasing the popularisation of legal regulations regarding the state audit, and strengthening inspection, examination and control of public duty performance, he said.

The NA leader also requested audited ministries, sectors and localities to promptly and fully implement audit conclusions and proposals.