(sav.gov.vn) – From April 21-25, the Delegation of the State Audit Office of Viet Nam led by Deputy Auditor-General Nguyen Tuan Anh paid a working visit to Malta at the invitation of the Auditor General of Malta Charles Deguaran.
The meeting with the Auditor General of Malta also welcome the attendance of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam to Italy, accredited to the Republic of Malta Duong Hai Hung, leader representatives of the SAV’s departments and equivalent, namely the Administration Department, the Inspectorate Department, the Specialised Audit Department No. IV, the Regional Audit Offices No. VII, International Cooperation Department.
Opening the meeting, Mr. Charles Deguaran expressed his honor to receive the Deputy Auditor-General Nguyen Tuan Anh to Malta and wish that the visit would usher in a new era of cooperation between the two SAIs.
The two sides shared information of the recent national socio-economic achievements, mutually affirming that the Viet Nam – Malta relationship is thriving as they have already celebrated the 50th year anniversary of establishing diplomatic relation.
Deputy Auditor-General Nguyen Tuan Anh congratulated the National Audit Office of Malta for their strengths in forensic audit, environmental audit, audit standards introduction. Mr. Deputy Auditor-General expressed wish that the two SAIs will further reinforce their bilateral cooperation through exchanging high-level visits, holding trainings, experience sharing sessions on the topics of mutual interest and proactively support each other in the multilateral forums.
After the courtesy meeting, the two organisations held a technical session to exchange their experience in forensic audit. It is one of the strengths of SAI Malta and a new area of interest of SAV, particularly negativity, waste prevention and combat in favour of corruption prevention and combat.
The International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) has introduced neither a standard nor any guidlines on forensic audit. There are several Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI) over the world have conducted such the audit type of which the scope and approach however differ depending primarily on each country’s institution as well as the respective prescribed functions and duties of SAIs.
Mr. Charles Deguaran highlighted that SAI Malta carries out forensic audits based on the request of: firstly, the Public Account Committee of the National Assembly; and secondly, individuals, organisations when signs of violence are detected. During the implementation of the audits, SAI Malta shall transfer cases with sign of violence to the police and then, the prosecution. Though there is no specific regulation on the duration of a forensic audit, SAI Malta always tries to complete their engagement as soon as possible to publicise the audit results.
On average, SAI Malta conducts approximately 120 audits and issues about 20 reports. Each report may include many audits of the same type. All audit reports are publicised in two ways, tabling to the National Assembly and uploading to the website (either full version or summary).
Discussing in the open atmosphere, SAI Malta suggested the two sides boost their cooperation, commencing with SAI Malta provides audit reports to SAV such as forensic audit reports, financial,complance and performance audit reports. Such documents shall serve as a useful source of reference for SAV, contributing to further enchancing the relationship between the two SAIs in the public auditing, to improving the governance capacity and accountability of the two Governments./.