The State Audit Office of Viet Nam (SAV) has issued Decision 07/2023/QD-KTNN dated May 16, 2023, promulgating the audit process of cases with signs of corruption. This Decision takes effect from June 30, 2023.
State Auditors carrying out their field work
Accordingly, the Audit Process of cases with signs of corruption (the Process) stipulates the procedures for conducting the audit, verification and clarification of cases with signs of corruption detected during the audit process; the disclosure of the audit report of the case showing signs of corruption. This Process is built on the basis of the provisions of the Law on Anti-corruption, the Law on the State Audit Office of Viet Nam, the System of State Auditing Standards, the Auditing Process of the State Audit Office and operational auditing practice.
The Process consists of three steps including detect cases with signs of corruption; verify, clarify cases with signs of corruption and handle cases with signs of corruption.
In audit activities, if there are arising cases other than the provisions of this Process, the head of the audit delegation, the leader of the audit team, members of the audit delegation, organizations and individuals entrusted or hired to perform the audit must report to the head of the unit in charge of the audit for submission to the State Auditor General for consideration and decision.
The promulgation of the Process aims to strengthen the detection, verification and clarification of cases showing signs of corruption during the audit process for handling according to competence or recommendations in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Anti-corruption, Law on the State Audit Office of Viet Nam, the Criminal Procedure Code and other relevant laws.
In addition, the promulgation of the Process aims to ensure consistency in the organization, implementation and management of audit activities and audit quality control of SAV, the audit delegation and members of the audit delegation.
The promulgation of the Process also serves as a basis for organizing the implementation of work steps when detecting cases with signs of corruption during the audit.
This Process is applicable to SAV’s subordinate units that are assigned the task of presiding over the audits’ implementation, SAV’s audit delegations (audit delegation), SAV’s units that are assigned the task of examining, inspecting, supervising and controlling audit quality; organizations and individuals entrusted or hired to perform audits and SAV’s collaborators; audited units and other relevant agencies, organizations and individuals.
The Process clearly states that, in the course of performing an audit, members of the audit delegation (state auditors) must appropriately apply audit methods, procedures, knowledge and professional judgment, legal documents to conduct the audit of the assigned tasks; and must proactively work to detect frauds and violations, particularly signs of corruption and crime.
In order to improve the ability to detect frauds and violations, particularly signs of corruption and crime, the State Auditor must maintain professional skepticism throughout the audit, must be aware of the possibility of existing material misstatement due to fraud; must pay special attention to complying with SAV standards and/or SAV implementation guidelines on: Responsibilities of the state auditor regarding frauds in financial audit; Methods to identify and assess the risks of material misstatement through an understanding of the audited entity and its operating environment in financial audit; Measures to handle audit risks in financial audit; Audit evidence in financial audits; Guidelines for compliance audits.
When suspecting a case with signs of corruption through auditing documents and records provided by the audited entity, state auditors must perform necessary additional audit procedures such as carry out interviews with the management and/or relevant people, departments (inspectors, internal auditors, etc.), perform analytical procedures to evaluate irregularities, expand audit selection, examine relevant documents and information, etc.
Audit methods and procedures to collect audit evidence must comply with SAV's regulations and/or guidance on state audit standards: Audit evidence and guidelines on compliance audit (including observation; audit inspection, comparison; external confirmation; recalculation; investigation; interview; analytical procedure; re-implementation) and other methods including field inspection, verification, experts hiring, inventory checking, inspection, accounts checking. The application of audit methods and procedures depends on the audit’s specific circumstances and the requirements for audit evidence in specific cases.
When considering and determining whether or not there are signs of corruption or crime, state auditors must compare them with the provisions of Criminal Code, Law on Anti-corruption and other relevant legal regulations on conducts of corruption, crimes (kindly refer to the conducts cited under the Criminal Code in the Appendix attached to this Process).
State Auditors shall examine, review and systematize the collected audit evidences about the case suspected of having signs of corruption, synthesize findings, and compile the initial file of the case./.