In the morning of April 17, 2023, in Wellington, New Zealand, the State Auditor General of New Zealand Mr. John Ryan held a courtesy meeting and worked alongside with the delegation from the State Audit Office of Viet Nam (SAV) led by SAV’s Deputy State Auditor General Mrs. Ha Thi My Dzung
The scene of the courtesy meeting
The delegation included Mr. Nguyen Luong Thuyet, Director of the Department of Audit policy and Quality control; Mr. Tran Khanh Hoa, Chief Auditor of Regional State Audit Office No. IV; Mr. Doan Chien Thang, Chief Auditor of Regional State Audit Office No. XI; Mrs. Pham Thi Thu Ha, Director General of the Center for Information technology; Mr. Le Hoai Nam, Deputy Director General of the Department of General Affairs.
Joining the State Auditor General of New Zealand, Mr. John Ryan in receiving SAV’s delegation were Mr. Mat Mullany, Director General of the Department of Public Services related to the Maori; Mr. Sarah Markley, Director General of the Department of International Cooperation; Mr. Mark Evans, Acting Assistant of Auditor General; Mr. Henry Broughton, Acting Assistant of Auditor General in charge of strategy and communications; Mr. Jason Hewett, Chief Strategy and Operation Advisor Hamish Gibson; Director of the Department of Performance Audit.
During the courtesy meeting, the State Auditor General of New Zealand, Mr. John Ryan expressed his pleasure in welcoming SAV’s delegation to visit and work with SAI New Zealand. He also shared information on the establishment process of SAI New Zealand, its functions, tasks as well as development strategies for the period from 2023-2028.
“SAI New Zealand has a long history of hundreds of years of establishment, dating back to 1846, along with extensive experience in perfomance audit, evaluating the effectiveness of public resources usage as well as auditing the Government’s budget estimates and settlements. Particularly in New Zealand, there is no binding audit period according to Law, instead, the State Auditor General decides the duration of the audit assigment based on actual work requirements of each audit and according to reporting timelines to Government and the National Assembly”, said the Auditor General.
The State Auditor General of New Zealand, Mr. John Ryan presented a souvenir to SAV’s Deputy State Auditor General, Mrs. Ha Thi My Dzung
Mrs. Ha Thi My Dzung, SAV’s Deputy General Auditor General, expressed her gratitude to the State Auditor of New Zealand for the warm and respectful welcome extented to the delegation. She also conveyed high appreciation for the contributions of SAI New Zealand as a member of several organizations such as the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI); Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions (PASAI); Asian Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI).
Mrs. Ha Thi My Dzung noted that SAI New Zealand has extensive experience in financial audits, performance audits, public procurement audits, particularly in auditing the sustainable development goals and audit quality control. Each year, SAI New Zealand makes important contributions to the international audit community by sharing experience, skills, information and giving advise to other Supreme Audit Institutions around the world to strengthen public sector accountability and promote good governance. As part of the Public Finance Modernisation Programme for SAV, funded by the European Union from 2018-2019, SAI New Zealand was an important partner in supporting SAV to enhance its professional capacity, auditing technique and training.
SAV’s Deputy Auditor General expressed high appreciation for the cooperative relationship between SAI New Zealand and SAV as well as the former's active participation in other international and regional organizations including various working groups of INTOSAI. In particular, SAI New Zealand has supported SAV in participating in multilateral organizations such as INTOSAI and ASOSAI, hosting of the 14th ASOSAI Assembly and serving as the Chairmanship of ASOSAI in the 2018-2021 tenure.
To further enhance bilateral cooperation between the two agencies, SAV’s leaders expressed the desire to promote closer and more effective cooperation with SAI New Zealand, and look forward to learning valuable experiences from SAI New Zealand’s strengths in auditing activities and promoting bilateral cooperation activities by exchanging and sharing experiences through high-level working delegations, joint seminars, exchange of working delegations to share professional audit experience focus on areas such as procurement audit, environmental audit.
As part of the multilateral cooperation, SAV hopes to receive the support and cooperation from SAI New Zealand in the INTOSAI forum. As an active and responsible member, after successfully hosting the 14th ASOSAI in 2018 and serving as ASOSAI Chairman for the 2018-2021 tenure, followed by serving as a member of the Governing Board for 2021-2024 tenure, SAV wishes to continue contributing to ASOSAI's activities, particularly as a member of the ASOSAI Audit Committee of the 2024-2027 tenure. SAV looks forward to receiving support of SAI New Zealand regarding its aspiration for nomination to this ASOSAI Audit Committee at the 16th ASOSAI Assembly in 2024.
During the meeting, SAI New Zealand shared its experience in auditing the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As recommended by INTOSAI, SAI New Zealand conducted an SDG audit to examine and assess the Government's preparation for the implementation of SDGs towards achieving their 2030 commitments on 17 SDGs for each country. SAI New Zealand proposed the Government to implement the SDGs commitments in a clearer and more synchronized manner to achieve the SDGs. Currently, SAI New Zealand is monitoring the implementation of recommendations made to the Government.
Moreover, the two sides exchanged further information on their respective experiences in controlling audit quality and proposed solutions to improve audit quality. SAI New Zealand places great emphasis on exercising quality control in accordance with audit standards and audit procedures that auditors must perform, while also promoting the application of information technology in performance management to enhance audit quality.
Mrs. Ha Thi My Dung, SAV’s Deputy Auditor General, expresed gratitude for the valuable insights shared by SAI New Zealand, and conveyed her hope that the bilateral cooperation relationship between both institutions would continue to develop in a practical and effective manner. Furthermore, Mrs. Ha Thi My Dzung extended an invitation to Mr. John Ryan, State Auditor General of New Zealand, on behalf of Mr. Ngo Van Tuan, SAV’s Auditor General, to visit and work with SAV in the near future./.