As reported earlier, within the framework of the 55th ASOSAI Governing Board virtual meeting on the afternoon of July 27, the proposal of establishing a working group on SDGs was officially approved on the basis of the report of the ASOSAI’s Special Committee.
At the teleconferenced 55th ASOSAI Governing Board Meeting on the afternoon of July 27, the SAV’s proposal on conducting a cooperative audit of water resource management in the Mekong River Basin was officially approved.
The Governing Board of ASOSAI convened a teleconferenced 55th meeting at 13:00 pm on July 27 (Vietnam local time) under the chair of the State Audit Office of Vietnam (SAV), which assumes the ASOSAI Chairmanship for 2018 – 2021.
Discipline and professional ethics are the decisive factors for the sustainable development of all organizations and agencies; For the State Audit, discipline and professional ethics are more important to decide the credibility, effectiveness, efficiency of audit activities. Auditing is a profession with a deep professionalism and high ethical and communicative culture. Therefore, the goal of the SAV is an ongoing effort to build a team of Auditors "fair - integrity - professionalism - bright mind".
It is undeniable that the achieved results of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) investment in recent years, however, the fact shows that the implementation of PPP projects still has many shortcomings. This is evidenced by the audit results, as well as the inspection results of a number of functional agencies. In the context of continuous improvement in PPP policy to attract investors and to enhance transparency in the implementation of PPP projects, the role of supreme audit institutions for PPP projects should be confirmed, especially when the Law of Public - Private Partnership (PPP Law) has been developed.
International experience shows that the Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) plays an important role in assessing the Government's prepareness to achieve the SDGs. Therefore, it is neccesary for the SAV to focus on studying, developing the outline and audit plan for the audit of this area.
Deriving from practical requirements and international experience, many experts recommend that it is necessary for delegating authority and strengthen the independent overseeing capacity of SAIs, expanding the audit plan for investment projects carried out by public-private partnership (PPP) method, applying a combination of three types of financial, compliance and performance audit to assess the overall economy, efficiency and effectiveness of the project.
Corruption is associated with public property and private power. In accordance with the provisions of the 2013 Constitution, it can be seen that the National Assembly had taken a leading role in controlling state power as a whole and preventing and fighting against corruption in particular. However, the legal institutions of the National Assembly have not clearly showed its power and ability to exercise the rights in a practical and effective manner. Furthermore, in accordance with the 2018 Law on Anti-corruption (taking effect on 01 July 2019), the National Assembly does not have anti-corruption functions. Article 7 under the Law regulates that the National Assembly shall supervise anti-corruption works nationwide.
After 3 years of implementing the 2015 State Audit Law, the SAV has proposed financial settlement of more than VND 240,000 billion; propose amendments, supplements and cancellation of hundreds of legal documents which are no longer suitable in order to close the loopholes in mechanism, organize the implementation of the State's regulations to avoid loss, waste and contribute importantly to strengthen the national finance, tighten financial discipline, especially contribute positively to the process of institutional improvement in the country's development process. However, at the request of the renovation and improving the effectiveness of public finance, public assets surveillance and corruption prevention, the SAV has built and submitted to the National Assembly for approval of Law No. 55/2019 / QH14 dated November 26, 2019 amending and supplementing a number of articles of the 2015 SAV to improve the legal system of SAV, enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of SAV.
The world has entered the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) towards automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies. As a contribution to this trend, the application of Information Technology (IT) in tax administration has played a significant role in the context of the increasing number of taxpayers, diversified scale and areas of operation. This is also posing many challenges for the State Audit Office of Vietnam (SAV) during the tax audit process.