Vietnam Auditing Seeks Solutions for Human Resources
The current human resources situation
Vietnam is undergoing international economic integration. The development of human resources with professional auditors will become a decisive factor, helping Vietnam enter the future joint financial market. In particular, in such a transitional market as that of Vietnam, the role of auditors is very important. They are the people who supervise activities relating to financial and monetary activities, helping enterprises and State agencies manage and control financial activities.
In Vietnam, auditing remains unfamiliar territory. The Law on State Auditing is currently in the process of being perfected. So far, Vietnam has 5,000 people working in the service but only around 800 of them have Vietnam auditing certificates and 100 others have certificates as international auditors. Taking into account present and future demand, Vietnam lacks qualified auditors. Vietnam will need at least 3,000 more people with Vietnamese auditor certificates and 2,000 more people with international auditor certificates to fill the service’s loophole of human resources. The problem is where Vietnamese auditors should learn to become more professional as Vietnam lacks training establishments.
Do Binh Duong, general director of the State Auditing Agency, said that despite having been set up for around ten years and having recorded significant achievements, the quality of auditors remained weak, especially in information technology and foreign languages. Among the three forms, financial statement audit, compliance audit and operational audit, Vietnam can only provide good services in financial statement audits. As operational audits have only recently been launched, Vietnam lacks experienced and well-trained auditors, who can meet short-term and international integration requirements. How to improve the skills of Vietnamese auditors to the regional and world levels is very important, as according to Duong, Vietnam wants to attract more investors. However, investors require financial transparency from their partners. This is the responsibility of auditors. Information provided by Nguyen Phuong Mai, chief representative of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), a UK auditing training establishment in Vietnam, many Vietnamese auditors have yet to meet their occupational requirements when they work with customers from trans-national corporations. In many cases, foreign partners do not assign tasks for auditors with domestic certificates.
Experts from the Corporate Auditing Department of the State Auditing Agency said that Vietnamese auditors should join training courses provided by foreign countries. This will help them become more confident in their work.
Solutions
In Vietnam, there are several foreign-run auditing training centres whose lecturers hold important positions in auditing in many countries. Members of these centres are general auditors in many countries. One of these centres is ACCA. The main activity of ACCA is to organise two international examinations per year in 400 countries around the world. Recently, the Ministry of Finance has signed a co-operation agreement with ACCA. The path to become professional accountants and auditors will become easier for Vietnamese people.
Bui Van Mai, head of the Accounting and Auditing Policy Department, said that the participation of ACCA had helped improve the position of Vietnam’s auditing in the international arena. This co-operation is vital in an effort to internationalise Vietnamese auditors with the highest target of reaching the recognition of auditing certificates between Vietnam, other countries in the region and the world. Vietnam needs time to overcome its issues caused by human resource shortages and poor quality among Vietnamese auditors.
Vietnamese
