The implementation of the State Audit's (SA) financial settlement recommendations at ministries, branches, localities and audited units has seen positive changes, but there is still 67,513 billion VND in backlog from 2021 and earlier that has not been settled. Mr. Vu Ngoc Tuan, Director of the General Department, SA, said that there will soon be a direction to settle this amount.
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| Mr. Vu Ngoc Tuan, Director of General Department, State Audit Office |
According to the Resolution on the 2022 state budget settlement just signed by the National Assembly Chairman, the implementation of the State Audit Office's financial handling recommendations has been better implemented, sir?
Regarding the 2022 audit recommendations, by December 31, 2023, ministries, branches, localities, and audited units have implemented financial handling recommendations on increasing revenue and reducing state budget expenditures of over VND 31,719 billion, reaching a rate of 91.69%; other recommendations of over VND 30,566 billion, reaching a rate of 82.72%. Regarding the audit recommendations before 2022, in 2023, the audited units continued to implement an additional nearly VND 10,303 billion, but the number of recommendations not yet implemented by December 31, 2023, was still about VND 67,513 billion.
Previously, the implementation of financial settlement recommendations from the previous year reached about 80% and continued to implement unrealized recommendations from previous years, but the cumulative total only reached about 86% of the total amount related to financial settlement.
According to you, why did you get such positive results?
To achieve such results, in addition to the drastic direction of the State Audit, there is also the close coordination of ministries, branches and localities, especially the drastic direction of the Prime Minister in rectifying and strengthening discipline in compliance with the law on finance and budget (Directive 22/CT-TTg dated June 23, 2023).
It can be said that Directive 22/CT-TTg is “iron discipline” because ministers, heads of central agencies and chairmen of provincial People's Committees must be responsible to the Prime Minister for the delay in implementing recommendations and conclusions of inspection and audit agencies regarding violations in the management and use of financial resources - state budget, public investment, and public assets under their assigned management responsibilities.
In addition, it is impossible not to mention the National Assembly's supervision related to the audit sector in general and the handling of audit recommendations in particular. Specifically, in August 2023, the National Assembly's Finance and Budget Committee requested the State Audit Office to explain this issue and at the recent 7th Session, for the first time, the State Auditor General conducted questioning of National Assembly deputies on audit-related activities, including the implementation of financial handling recommendations.
But in reality, there are still 67,513 billion VND that have not been processed?
This content was reported and explained by the State Auditor General in the recent question-and-answer session before the National Assembly. The National Assembly also passed a resolution on question-and-answer activities at the 7th Session, requesting the Government and the Prime Minister to direct research and develop a common handling mechanism for inspection conclusions and audit recommendations that are no longer feasible. This issue will have to be reported to the National Assembly on the implementation results when submitting the 2023 state budget settlement in June 2025.
In principle, the recommendations of the State Audit Office have legal value and must be implemented. Currently, many recommendations cannot be implemented due to both objective and subjective reasons and due to legal mechanisms. Therefore, the National Assembly requests relevant agencies to review, research, and propose amendments to the State Audit Law and related documents.
One of the solutions to completely handle the above backlog is to allow the deletion of financial items that have been proposed, but for objective reasons cannot be processed, similar to the deletion of tax debts?
It is true that there are many outstanding debts that are very difficult to handle, such as enterprises and contractors that have dissolved or gone bankrupt; individuals responsible have died or lost civil capacity. Regarding state budget debts, this outstanding tax debt has been handled and has been specifically regulated in the Law on Tax Administration, but regarding financial handling according to recommendations and conclusions of audits and inspections, there are no specific regulations, so it cannot be implemented.
The State Audit Office, the Government Inspectorate and relevant agencies will study and present a solution, because the backlog will continue to grow if there is no definitive solution.
However, deleting this petition is very complicated, because the enterprise (contractor) is dissolved or bankrupt; the legal representative of the enterprise has died or lost civil capacity, but this financial amount in many cases is the responsibility of the investor.
Therefore, it is necessary to specifically and strictly determine the responsibility leading to financial violations that require a recommendation for handling (recovery, increased revenue, reduced state budget expenditure). Otherwise, just the reason for the contractor's dissolution, bankruptcy; the person responsible dies, or loses civil capacity to propose the deletion of this financial amount, then the state budget is easily lost and misappropriated.
While there is no breakthrough regulation to handle the proposed backlog of financial matters, do you hope that the implementation of the State Audit Office's recommendations will continue to improve?
This is certain because ministries, branches, localities, and units managing and using the state budget must still thoroughly implement Directive 22/CT-TTg. Furthermore, the National Assembly Chairman has just signed and issued a Resolution approving the 2022 state budget settlement. Accordingly, the National Assembly requires that in 2024, tasks and solutions that have not been completed in the Resolutions of the National Assembly and the National Assembly Standing Committee related to the state budget settlement must be urgently implemented; and specific solutions must be found to overcome existing shortcomings and limitations.
The National Assembly also assigned the Government to direct ministries, branches and localities to strengthen the supervision and prompt implementation of the conclusions and recommendations of the State Audit Office related to financial and other handling; clarify responsibilities and synthesize reports to competent authorities to handle cases of force majeure that make it impossible to implement the conclusions and recommendations of the State Audit Office.
Source: https://baodautu.vn/se-xu-ly-dut-diem-kien-nghi-tai-chinh-con-ton-dong-d219281.html
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