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Vietnam: Audit Office assisted with its financial audit mission

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Published on 13/08/2019
Democratic, economic and financial governance
PUBLIC FINANCES
Vietnam
In the context of the project to support Vietnam’s Audit Office (SAV), which is financed by the European Union, Expertise France has organised two workshops to share international experiences in the assessment of the State’s budget forecasts and the assessment of public debt.

Improving the effectiveness of budget management and public finances is a pillar of good governance and an important objective for Vietnam. The Vietnam Audit Office (SAV) has therefore requested support to improve the quality of the State budget estimate and the audit of public debt.

The assessment of budget forecasts aims to evaluate whether the Government’s macroeconomic forecasts are realistic and the consistency of the annual objectives set out in the financial texts (finance bills, amending finance bills…) with the multi-year public finance objectives. The objective is to contribute to providing information required by the National Assembly for oversight and decision-making and thereby contribute to public transparency and accountability in Vietnam.

Audit of the State’s budget and public debt forecasts: priorities for SAV

In 2017, SAV set up the audit function for the State’s budget forecasts, in accordance with the 2015 law on the State audit. However, this type of assessment is still relatively limited due to the existing legal and technical weaknesses.

At the same time, the public debt audit plays an increasingly important role in Vietnam. During the audit of the final settlement of the State budget, the Audit Office is increasingly focusing on the analysis and audit of public debt. It also works actively with the Ministry of Finance to understand the annual management of public debt and recommend best practices.

Consequently, SAV considers the audit of the forecasts of the State’s budget and public debt as priorities in the context of the development of its financial audit mission.

Workshops to share good auditing practices

The workshops, which were organised at the end of June 2019 in the form of an open forum, aimed to present experiences in Britain (Office for Budget Responsibility), Portugal (Court of Contas) and Latvia (State Audit Office) and compare them with the practices of SAV.

These workshops gathered representatives from the Ministry of Finance, the Finance Committee of the National Assembly and SAV, as well as international experts. All the discussions helped to identify the challenges and solutions to ensure transparency in financial management and the use of the State budget, and to build training materials on the assessment of the State’s budget forecasts and the public debt audit, in line with the expectations of the Vietnamese beneficiaries.

Find out more about Expertise France’s support to public finances

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