On the occasion Dr. Ho Duc Phoc, Auditor General of Vietnam attended the 4th ASEANSAI Summit in Vientiane, Lao PDR during 5th - 6th November 2017, the People’s Delegation Newspaper conducted an interview with him on this theme.
Dr. Ho Duc Phoc, Auditor General of SAV, Chairman of Strategic Plan Committee of ASEANSAI at the Summit
Could you please explain the importance of the 4th ASEANSAI Summit held in Lao PDR during5th – 6th November 2017 to ASEANSAI members, including SAI Vietnam?
Dr. Phoc: The Summit is such an important event for ASEANSAI to assess its achievements and efforts for the last 2 years since ASEAN were united in a community on 31st December 2015. At the Summit, Heads of SAIs indentified the strategic goals and objective for next term; evaluated the Committees’ progress for the period 2015 – 2017; exchanged knowledge, experience and defined the mutual audit theme among countries; contributed to capacity building of member SAIs; promoted efficiency, effectiveness and transparence of public finance and enhance good governance in respective countries and also the ASEAN region.
At the Summit, the ASEANSAI’s leadership for the tenure 2017 – 2019 was elected. The Chairmanship would be transferred from SAI Cambodia to SAI Laos, SAI Malaysia held the position of Vice Chairman; SAI Indonesia maintained their role of The Secretariat for term 2017 – 2023; SAI Vietnam continued to be the Chairman of ASEANSAI Strategic Plan Committee. The Assembly adopted ASEANSAI Strategic Plan 2018 – 2021 finalized by SAI Vietnam.
The Summit was an opportunity for the top leaders to discuss and set out the plan to achieve ASEANSAI’s envisaged strategic objectives in 2018 – 2021 comprising mutual auditing on sustainable development under the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) towards 2030. It was also a forum for ASEANSAI to seek for resolution to improve its progress and professional capacity building for member SAIs, contributed to the implementation of the socio-economic development and anti-corruption. In particular, the Summit represented the efforts of the ASEANSAI leaders to become a strategic partner of ASEAN for a stable and prosperous ASEAN community.
How did SAI Vietnam play its role as Chairman of Strategic Plan Committee of ASEANSAI for the last tenure?
Dr. Phoc: The delegates highly appreciated attempt of SAI Vietnam for the last 2 years, presenting in Activity Report 2015 – 2017, ASEANSAI SP 2018 – 2021 and SPC’s Work Plan 2018 – 2019. The focal point in SPC’s activities was implementation of Strategic Objective 6.1: “Strengthen the management and organization of ASEANSAI”. SAI Vietnam carried out joint audit as auditing IT with SAI Indonesia; exchanged knowledge and experience in terms of performance audit, environmental audit, financial audit, etc.
I believe that SPC successfully accomplished its mission during that time by monitoring the implementation of SP 2014 – 2017 and completing SP 2018 – 2021 at the same time.
For the coming period, SPC’s activities would be focused on reviewing the Monitoring and Evaluation system for further upgrade; training for Committees for their better application; organizing annual evaluation meeting for ASEANSAI’s progress and making recommendations for improvements; and developing SPC’s Work Plan 2020 – 2021 at the same time.
How about the cooperation among SPC’s members from your perception?
Dr.Phoc: ASEANSAI was found on 16th November 2011 to achieve its mission of becoming s trusted public institution in promoting good governance in the region. After 6 years of development, ASEANSAI has made a great contribution to capacity building of SAI members through auditing expertise seminars, workshop and conferences in many fields. Some mutual areas of interest including environmental, IT and performance audit.
As one of four founding members of ASEANSAI, also Chairman of SPC, SAI Vietnam has been great supported by SPC’s members and Committees’ Chairs. Member SAIs are fully aware of their responsibilities and interests and effectively contributed to the successful implementation of ASEANSAI’s objectives by each phase. Through the multilateral cooperation forum, each SAI has found the benefits brought by the organization. So far, with the active participation from all members, ASEANSAI has grown to be ready to tackle the common challenges in the region such as tariffs, climate change and environment.
On the sideline of the Summit, SAI Vietnam and SAI Indonesia signed a bilateral MoU on Auditing in public sector. Could you please share about it?
Dr. Phoc: According to MoU signed by SAI Vietnam and SAI Indonesia, on the basis of respecting operational principles of INTOSAI, ASOSAI and ASEANSAI, two sides agreed to intensify the cooperation in some areas as Performance audit, Financial audit, Environment audit, IT audit, audit quality control and other fields of mutual interest.
For the mechanism, the two sides agreed to exchange knowledge relating to audit methods, skills and techniques in public sector; research, training activities, conferences, general seminars on topics on auditing based on needs and consensus; conducting parallel audit, secondment to audit on the topics of mutual interest; support each other on multilateral forums.
Since our first partnership established in 1999 and signing MoU in 2011 in Bali, Indonesia, the two SAIs have exchanged many delegations at different levels and organized workshops to share experiences on mutual concerns. Especially in recent years, the two SAI has carried out cooperation in the field of performance audit and environmental audit.
The signing of MoU is the foundation for enhancing cooperation and strengthening the audit capacity of the two SAIs, contributing to the creation of transparent financial governance for the two countries and in the region.
Thank you for your sharing!