On February 9, 2023, at the headquarters of the State Audit Office of Vietnam (SAV), its National Scientific Projects Board (Board) “Improving State Audit laws to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of preventing and combating corruption and waste in Vietnam” (Project) organized a meeting to evaluate the progress and give comments on the draft Project. Member of the Party Central Committee, Auditor General Ngo Van Tuan – Project Manager, chaired the meeting
Overall scene of the meeting
Attending the meeting were key members of the Board, including Deputy Auditor General Ha Thi My Dzung, Prof. Dr. Doan Xuan Tien, former Deputy Auditor General, Dr. Le Minh Nam, standing member of the Finance and Budget Committee of National Assembly and some SAV’s leaders at departmental and divisional levels.
Mr. Tran Kim Loc, Director General of Centre of Science Research and Training, one of the Board members reported that,: According to Decision No. 2933/QD-BKHCN dated October 30, 2020 of the Minister of Science and Technology on approving the leading unit, individuals in charge, funding, method of lump sum payment and specific time to perform independent national science and technology tasks, the Project shall be conducted in 30 months, from November 2020 to April 2023 following the leadership of Centre of Science Research and Training.
According to Mr. Loc, from the decision date to February 2023, the Project’s implementing groups have closely observed the study mission and completed the 2nd draft report to summarize the reasearch results and a draft reference book documenting these results.
The Research Board also conducted a field survey in Quang Ninh and online surveys in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang City and Khanh Hoa Province. In the process of research implementation, the Board had discussions with several SAIs of Korea, China, Thailand... in order to collect necessary resources of documents related to the content of the research.
“Due to the complicated developments of the COVID-19 epidemic, the overseas travel surveys according to the Project’s contract were not conducted. In order to save money, the Centre of Science Research and Training has sent an official letter to the Ministry of Science and Technology to propose to synthesize thematic reports from the reference materials instead of overseas travel surveys. Up to now, the Project Board has basically completed the research results and submitted the products accepted as planned”, Director General Loc said.
Regarding the regulations on organizing the implementation of national scientific research projects, in 2021 and 2022, the Project Board held 10/10 seminars and 01/02 scientific conference “State Audit laws in preventing and combating corruption and waste: Current status and orientation for improvement” with the participation of a large number of scholars, researchers and central and local press agencies.
The Project Board has published 6 articles in scientific journals which are scored by the Council of Professors and guided 02 graduate students.
Standing member of Finance – Budget Committee of the National Assembly Lê Minh Nam expressed his opinions at the meeting
In line with the work plan in the coming time, the Project Board will organize a scientific conference expected at the end of February 2022 to continously seek opinions on the content and research results of the Project. It also reviewed and completed the draft report on the topic, edited the summary and recommendations of the Project before the organization of grassroots council and complete the synthesis report, summary report and proposal of the Project as concluded by the grassroots council. According to the plan, it is expected that a meeting of the Acceptance Council for the National Projects will be held in Aprile or May, and reference books will be published by May and June 2023. As drafted, the Project has 4 chapters, including: (i) Theoretical basis of the state audit laws in preventing and combating corruption, negativity and waste; (ii) International experience in combating corruption, negativity and waste and lessons learned for Vietnam; (iii) Current status of SAV’s legislation and its auditing activities in preventing and combating corruption, negativity and waste; and (iv) Orientations and solutions to improve the legal system and implement the state audit laws in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of handling corruption, negativity and waste.
Most of the Project Board’s members highly appreciated the 2
nd draft of the Project, expecially the reception, editing and finalization of the Project according to the opinions and comments by experts and scientists through seminars and talks held in the past time and through experiences from different SAIs. The members also mentioned that the Project should further clarify the role, position, functions and tasks of the SAV in preventing and combating corruption, negativity and waste in Vietnam as well as concentrate on evaluating the current situation and proposing solutions and recommendations for the relevant contents given in the Project. Furthermore, the Project needs to update information and data on audit results, recommendations and cases having signs of law violation detected through audit activities and also provide the relevant agencies under the National Assembly, Central Inspection Committee, the Police Investigation Agency under the Ministry of Public Security with audit records, reports and related documents.
Auditor General Ngô Văn Tuấn gave a speech to conclude the meeting
Concluding the meeting, Auditor General Ngo Van Tuan, as Project Manager, acknowledged the efforts and results put forth by the Project Board in the past time. He also agreed with the proposed plan and asked its members to closely cooperate with Centre of Science Research and Training to quickly organize seminars, receive and study in-depth opinions by experts inside and outside the SAV. The Project Board’s members shall review all contents and continously give opinions to complete the Project by analyzing, evaluating, and clarifying the roles, responsibilities and participation of the SAV in performing the tasks of preventing and combating corruption, negativity and waste. The Project should follow the outline and update evidences for claims in arguments under the Project. There must be corresponding remedial solutions to existing problems and limitations being raised. The Auditor General noted that the Project should clarify the role of SAV in the relationship with inspection and examination agencies so that people, agencies and organizations can clearly understand the differences between the SAV and these agencies.
Mr. Ngo Van Tuan also suggested that the Project Board should focus on speeding up the implementation progress to submit all items of the Project to Ministry of Science and Technology in March 2023.