Finance Minister talks about solutions to prevent corruption in auditing

Continuing the question and answer session on the morning of March 18, National Assembly Deputy Pham Van Hoa (Dong Thap delegation) said that according to the report, our country currently has more than 200 independent auditing enterprises. In the past, enterprises have performed audits well, however, there are also auditing enterprises that have overlooked errors in audited subjects for the personal interests of auditors, leading to loss of state budget, covering up violations, and negativity such as the SCB case where up to 3 large-scale auditing enterprises committed violations.

"In terms of industry management function, what solutions does the Minister have to prevent and deter negativity in the auditing industry?", Mr. Hoa stated.

Responding to questions about audit violations, the Minister of Finance said that recently there have been violations in independent audits in a number of criminal cases.

According to the Minister, this is related to many factors, such as: the capacity of auditors at auditing companies; furthermore, the sense of responsibility of those who directly perform auditing work and does not exclude the case of collusion to intentionally violate the law to commit wrongdoing.

“Regarding auditing work, the Ministry of Finance has directed and tightened the process from the auditors being granted auditor certificates, set conditions in accordance with legal regulations, and organized exams and training seriously,” said Mr. Phoc.

Citing the seriousness of the auditor exam, Mr. Phuc said that auditors have never passed the exam with more than 30% passing, the highest year was only 30%. Thus, the Ministry of Finance has issued auditing standards and auditing methods.

“In the coming time, the Ministry of Finance will continue to tighten the operations of auditing companies to re-examine some sets of documents. If there are any violations, they will be strictly handled,” Mr. Phoc said, adding that the country currently has 221 auditing companies with about 2,363 auditors, which is still small compared to other countries. However, attention should be paid to quality.

"As for auditors' mistakes that may be due to favoritism, weak capacity or collusion, we will train them to improve their professional ethics, culture and professional qualifications to perform their duties well," Mr. Phuc emphasized.

Finance - Banking - Minister of Finance talks about solutions to prevent negativity in auditing — Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc answers questions.

Speaking at the debate , delegate Ta Van Ha (Quang Nam delegation) said that recent times have shown that valuation companies not only play an important role in the economy, but in recent cases of violations, the role of valuation companies is also very important, responsible, or even aiding in lowering or raising prices.

According to the delegate, there are many reasons, but the important reason is that recently there has been an overheated increase in valuation businesses, leading to collusion and violations. However, after handling the violations, people do not dare to do anything, causing difficulties in the operation of the economy.

Therefore, the delegate asked the Minister to state the Ministry's responsibility in this matter, and at the same time, provide solutions to overcome the above limitations in the coming time?

Responding to the debate , Minister Ho Duc Phoc said that the whole country only has a few hundred valuation companies, and the Ministry of Finance also strictly manages the certification process for appraisers; the violations in the past were mainly due to appraisers intentionally making mistakes.

The Minister gave an example of land prices. If the surplus method is applied, the valuation will be wrong if investigated, because assets formed in the future must go through many steps such as establishing, approving designs, and making estimates, but when audited and inspected by the agency, they are all not in accordance with regulations.

Therefore, the cause is partly due to legal regulations, but also partly due to officials intentionally doing wrong; if they do wrong, they need to be disciplined or criminally prosecuted .

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