The Chairman of Vietnam's Auditor Association, Tran Van Ta, has saidthat the State Audit office of Vietnam (SAV) should operate as alarge-scale independent organisation without any external interference. Tawas speaking at a workshop on improving the strategic role of the auditoffice in public finance management with Vietnamese and internationalauditors on September 25. The main topic was Values and Benefits of the State Audit Office in Public Finance Management. Theworkshop was organised by the United States Agency for InternationalDevelopment (USAID) and the State Audit of Vietnam (SAV). It waspart of USAID's Country Development Cooperation Strategy for Vietnam20014-2018 which relates to Vietnam's Strategic Plan on the Developmentof State Audit 2013-2017. Addressing the gathering, Ta said theaudit office should transform its method from compliance audit toperformance audit and perform business-based audit to improve workefficiency. He added that it should develop audit standards toensure the proper use of State funds by agency leaders, adding that itshould operate as a large-scale independent organisation without anyexternal interference. Director of Regional State Audit Office 12in Dak Lak, Nguyen Anh Tuan, said that State audit offices had to provetheir roles to ensure accountability in using State funds. A representative from KPMG Vietnam said that the audit office needed assistance from those audited to improve working results. TheDeputy Director of Specialised Audit Department 4 in charge of capitalinfrastructure investment and projects, Vu Nhat Anh, said Stateenterprises that had been equitised should be included in the auditsubjects to avoid losses in the State budget. He said it would bebetter if SAV improved the quality of audit training programmes and theexchange of information among auditors to improve specialistcompetency. The Director of Regional State Audit Office 4 in HoChi Minh City, Truong Viet Huong, said that the Law of State Auditshould be more widely publicised to improve the knowledge of governmentagencies and businesses. A representative from the Institute ofEconomics and Finance under the Ministry of Finance, Vu Dinh Anh saidthat the actual State fund had always exceeded its estimate by 35percent. He said the most important matter was to tighten fiscal and financial expenses in the use of State funds. He added that society would require information about State funds to be monitored to ensure their integrity and transparency. TheMinistry of Finance representative said that the quality of auditfigures must be guaranteed through internal and external monitoring andevaluation.-VNA