SAV held the Workshop on “BT Investment Management – Issues and Solutions”
On 19th October 2017, SAV held the workshop on “BT Investment Management – Issues and Solutions” at its head office in Hanoi. Dr. Ho Duc Phoc – Auditor General - joined the opening session. Deputy Auditor General – Cao Tan Khong and Director of the Audit Training Institute –Dr. Le Dinh Thang co-chaired the Workshop. Participants came from various Ministries included: Ministry of Planning and Investment; State Bank; Ministry of Transport; Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment; Hanoi’s Natural Resource and Environment Department together with representatives from professional associations and universities. The Workshop also gained the attendance of many news agencies.
In his opening speech, Dr. Ho Duc Phoc acknowledged that BT (Build – Transfer) Investment projects, along with BOT Investment projects, contributed greatly to the development of infrastructures in Vietnamand was an effective mean to gather capital from both domestic and foreign investors. However, due to intransparent practices for personal interestsand high returns from obtaining land rights, BT Investments were oftendistorted. Some of the practices that gave rise to the issues surrounding BT Investment included: no project’s planning and disclosuring or delaying in doing so; appointing contractors who were latter found lacking in financial capacity as well as management experienceduring procurement process.
The Workshop was held to creat a forum to analyze, discuss and clarify the nature of current BT projects and the legal ground for the SAV to audit BT projects; evaluating the status ofBT projects, the status of the BT projects’ auditsby the SAV and proposed solutions on both the mechanisms and state policies to improve the efficiency of BT projects. Many experts from within the SAV as well as other organizations like Oxfarm Vietnam; Vietnam Association of Accountants and Auditors (VAA) presented their knowledges, experiences and studies regarding the elements of BT investment projects.
At the end of the Workshop, Deputy Auditor General Cao Tan Khong acknowledged the importance of BT investment project. In his conclusion, Khong also pointed out several pros and cons of BT projects. He also confirmed again the role of the SAV in auditing BT investment projects, and recommended some solutions to improving the effectiveness of BT projects.
