|
Auditing of State agencies is about cutting costs
State Auditor General Vuong Dinh Hue spoke to the Vietnam New Agency regarding the State Audit of of State-owned corporations and economic groups.
What is the main objective of the audit at the current situation of the economy?
We hope to clarify organisations’ investment strategies, capital mobilisation for development under the groups’ orientation as well as specify the percentage of the amount of capital they have invested in other sectors. This can help the Government and authorities evaluate the effectiveness of these enterprises’ investments which can then enable the drafting of suitable policies to curb inflation.
When will the auditing be implemented on the Electricity of Viet Nam (EVN) and the Viet Nam Coal and Mineral Industries Group (TKV)?
The auditing of EVN was done early this week and TKV will be audited in the third quarter of this year. We will assess reports of the two groups’ affiliates and united financial reports of the groups and evaluate not only the groups’ compliance with the law but also how effectively they utilised their investments and assets.
However, in the current context, we have set several specific targets on some economic groups. For example, we will audit expenses, cost price and revenue from the electricity sector including domestic electricity production and electricity bought from overseas. That could create the important foundation for the Government in considering a roadmap for the price of electricity.
In our opinion, EVN should offer a reasonable factory price (output price) which takes into account the input costs. The price must be competitive so as to attract domestic and foreign investors. However, minimising expenses and electric energy lost and applying advanced technologies are necessary tasks that will help EVN better moderate electricity prices.
We will do the same auditing with TKV.
Economists blame groups for failing to assess risks involved in allocating too much capital to other sectors and not enough in their core business. What are your thoughts on this?
We should clarify what is termed as a risky criterion. In our opinion, it depends on what the audit will prove. The first and foremost task is to define the percentage of capital that has been invested in other sectors instead of core business and then decide whether that was a dangerous move or not. Presently, we are dependant on reports of the groups that have yet to be appraised.
The second task is to examine effectiveness of the groups’ investments based on their appraised reports. If the groups made sound investments, inflation should not have occurred and vice versa. I think that vis a vis the auditing of EVN and TKV, we could evaluate the impact caused by the groups’ moves on the country’s economy and inflation.
When will auditing results be announced?
The auditing process of EVN involved 100 auditors, making it the largest process ever carried out by the State Audit of Viet Nam. The auditing process is being done in stages and will last three months as it is one of the country’s largest groups. We will announce the auditing results in October while TKV’s auditing result will be published by the year-end.
|
