Illustrative image (Photo: baokiemtoannhanuoc.vn) Hanoi (VNA) - The State Audit Office of Vietnam (SAV) has seen an increase in its international cooperation activities over recent years, contributing to its growth amid the country’s widespread global integration.
Regarding bilateral ties, the SAV has formed partnerships with over 50 Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) globally and signed 29 international agreements with SAIs and international organisations. Many of the SAIs play a significant role in international organisations, such as the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) and the Asian Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI), as well as audit offices in China, India, the Republic of Korea, Russia, and Canada. The SAV also has cooperative ties with accredited accounting and audit organisations such as the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and Certified Practising Accountants (CPA) in Australia.
On multilateral coordination, the SAV has actively and proactively taken part in activities of regional and global audit organisations. In September 2019, it successfully held the 14th Congress of ASOSAI, themed “Environmental Audit for Sustainable Development”, and was elected as ASOSAI Chair for the 2018-2021 tenure. The SAV is also a member of the ASOSAI Governing Board from 2015-2024. Such external activities have been a turning point, making important contributions to improving SAV’s stature not only at home but also in the region and the world.
During its development, the SAV established and expanded relationships with responsible sponsors such as the EU, the World Bank (WB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Canadian Audit and Accountability Foundation (CAAF), to attract resources to improve audit capacity. Technical support projects helped SAV perfect its mechanisms and improve audit quality, contributing to carrying out the action plan for the implementation of its development strategy to 2020.
It is necessary to build on past achievements and take greater responsibility in the international community to maintain its stature.
To fulfil tasks assigned it by the Party and the State, the SAV needs to continue improving the professional capacity of its officials, cadres, and auditors, and perfect its apparatus, policies, mechanisms and regulations in the field.
During 2020-2030, the SAV will continue to enhance global cooperation and integration activities, effectively tap into and expand bilateral relations, actively follow multilateral rules and standards, and fully pool international resources to meet audit requirements in a timely and effective manner.
To that end, the SAV will continue promoting bilateral ties with SAIs in both breadth and depth, increase the sharing of professional experience via conferences and workshops, and review the delivery of international commitments, towards signing cooperation deals to improve the SAV’s capacity in priority fields.
It will selectively acquire international experience to serve training, update experience in auditing emerging issues, hold and manage reference materials, and study the building of an online system to facilitate access to such materials.
At the same time, it has joined multilateral cooperation organisations, is fulfilling its role as ASOSAI Chair and member of the ASOSAI Governing Board to 2024, ran for membership of the INTOSAI Governing Board for the 2019-2025 period, was ASOSAI Secretary General following 2017, will be Chair of the ASEANSAI after 2028, has sought and will seek to bid as an independent auditor for international organisations, especially ASEAN and UN agencies, during the 2021-2030 period, and be the coordinator of ASOSAI and INTOSAI projects and research activities after 2025.
The SAV will initiate an annual multilateral forum to update professional knowledge and experience in the region and build and restructure its departments in a professional manner, towards turning Vietnam into an outstanding country in ASEAN-4 in terms of audit capacity before 2030.
It will also strive to make breakthroughs in seeking and launching foreign-invested projects, actively and promptly grasp assistance trends in the new circumstances, and via its annual conference raise mutual understanding between the SAV and sponsors like the WB, the ADB, the EU, USAID, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the CAAF, the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).
The sector will improve its capacity for negotiation and project design, draw up two or three technical support projects before 2030, build an audit manual that meets international standards, step up the audit of projects using ODA, and become a trustworthy audit organ of major sponsors such as the WB, the ADB, JICA, and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA)./.
VNA
