In the morning of March 17, 2023, in Ha Noi, the State Audit Office of Viet Nam (SAV) and the Canadian Audit and Accountability Foundation (CAAF) held a review meeting on the partnership between the two Agencies.
Overview of the meeting
Attending the meeting were representatives of the Finance - Budget Committee and the Social Affairs Committee of the National Assembly; H.E. Mr. Shawn Steil, Ambassador of Canada to Viet Nam.
On the side of the State Audit Office of Viet Nam, there were HE.Mr Ngo Van Tuan, Auditor-General; H.E.Mr. Doan Anh Tho, Deputy General Auditor - Head of Strategic Group on Performance Auditing; and leaders of SAV's subordinate units including Department of Administration, Department of General Affairs, Department of International Cooperation, Department of Personnel and Organization, and members of SAV's Strategic Group on Performance Audit and Group of developing training materials on the Performance Audit.
On CAAF side, H.E. Mrs Caroline Jorgensen, Vice President and experts were present at the meeting.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, H.E.Mr. Ngo Van Tuan, Auditor General emphasized that, in the field of public administration in general and auditing activities in particular, performance audit has been established and developed to meet the increasing requirements of management and supervision in practice, which other traditional audit types fail to address.
HE. Mr. Ngo Van Tuan, Auditor-General
Within the framework of cooperation between the Governments of Canada and Viet Nam, CAAF has consistently provide support for SAV with valuable technical assistance, helping SAV to enhance its performance audit capacity through the Cooperation Program in the period of 2012-2017 and extending to the period of 2018-2025.
Discussing at the conference, the two agencies exchanged and agreed on the cooperation plan for the period of 2023-2025 and orientation for cooperation in the coming time in order to strengthen the performance audit capacity of SAV with key activities including continuing to train SAV’s auditors on performance audit, periodically organizing from 01 to 02 business trips of CAAF to Viet Nam to organize training courses, selecting 02 trainees each year to participate in a performance audit training course in Canada, developing and completing documents on performance audit with topics relevant to SAV's needs. In 2023, 04 sets of documents will be completed and trainings will be held covering the following topics: Root cause analysis training; Collect and analyze evidences; Participation of auditees; Gender equality audit. CAAF will continue teaching new topics so that SAV can consider and select topics which are suitable for SAV's needs and develop training materials in the coming period.
In addition, SAV will organize the performance audit with the support from CAAF experts; conduct the SAI PMF to assist SAV to self-assess its performance against international standards and good practices; strengthen cooperation activities with the Committees of the National Assembly to enhance the role of supervision and evaluation of the performance audits and follow up the implementation of audit recommendations.
HE. Mr. Shawn Steil, Ambassador of Canada to Viet Nam
Making his speech at the meeting, Ambassador Shawn Steil stated that CAAF is a public organization that promotes integrity and public trust in the audit field in Canada. The cooperation between CAAF and SAV in recent years has been extremely effective, bringing positive contributions to the public sector in Viet Nam. The cooperation program between the two agencies is one of the key projects and serves as the highlight marking the 50th anniversary of cooperation between the two countries. On that basis, the Ambassador affirmed that Canada is determined to focuses on enhancing cooperation to promote the growth of the two countries.
Ms. Caroline Jorgensen - Interim Vice President of CCAF said that after 15-year-cooperation with SAV, CAAF experts have consistently received great support from SAV staff and learned a variety of professional expertise from SAV. CAAF expects to further promote the cooperation relationship between the two Agencies in sharing, exchanging experiences, strengthening capacity and CAAF is committed to giving the highest priority to assisting SAV in implementing the objectives of Development Strategy for the period of 2021-2030 on performance audit in the coming time.
At the end of the meeting, HE.Mr. Ngo Van Tuan, Auditor General emphasized that SAV has recently issued its Development Strategy to 2030 (in period of 2021-2030), in which SAV strives to promote performance audit, thematic audits, IT audits, and environmental audits, accounting for approximately 30% to 40% of the number of annual audits in the period of 2026-2030; SAV will stimutaneously diversify audit contents, gradually strengthen performance audits, thematic audits, IT audits, and environmental audits. In addition, the Strategy also identifies the need to improve SAV's capacity in information exchange and cooperation with supervisory agencies and other stakeholders.
To realize these goals in reality, SAV wishes to keep receiving support from the Government of Canada, CAAF and the close coordination of relevant agencies, including Finance - Budget Committee and the Social Affairs Committee of the National Assembly.
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary diplomatic relation between Canada and Viet Nam, HE.Mr. Ngo Van Tuan, Auditor General congratulated the friendship between the two countries, the fruithful relationship between their people and wished for insreasingly effective, practical and in-depth cooperation relationship between SAV and CAAF./.