Improving Working Conditions of State Auditors

of the State Audit Office with the participation of leaders of the State Audit Office, units of the State Audit Office, audit teams, and professional organizations. Experience from many countries in the world and the reality of Vietnam in the transitional economy show the important and positive role of professional organizations in fostering, maintaining and controlling the professional ethics of auditors.

Third, strengthen the role and responsibility of professional organizations in training, improving and controlling the professional ethics of public accountants. As a professional social organization, the Vietnam Association of Accountants and Auditors has implemented many activities that have contributed positively to socio-economic development. The Vietnam Association of Accountants and Auditors plays an important role in:

- Ensure and improve the quality of economic and financial information systems

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- Participate in checking, controlling, managing and supervising accounting and auditing activities and the accounting and auditing service market.

- Improve the quality of professional management, promote the role of professional organizations in controlling professional ethics in accounting and auditing.

- Developing human resources in accounting and auditing. Training high quality human resources.

- Strengthen international integration with professional organizations in the region and the world.

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Control of professional ethics of auditors of Vietnam Association of Accountants and Auditors

including controlling the operational responsibilities and conduct of auditors according to professional ethics and auditing professional ethics standards. Therefore, the State Audit Office can also coordinate with the Vietnam Association of Accountants and Auditors to further improve and enforce the requirements on professional ethics of State Auditors.

5.2.5. Improving working conditions of State Auditors

In addition, the research results show that the working conditions of State Auditors are also a factor affecting the quality of auditing financial statements of banks. Therefore, improving working conditions is very necessary for the State Audit to improve the quality of current audits.

Personal working equipment of KTVNN such as equipment, basic inspection means for field inspection, means of transport, etc. need to be taken care of.

attention and investment. The working fee regime, reward regime, and sanctions for violations of the State Audit Office need to be specifically, transparently, appropriately and appropriately regulated. In addition, the application of information technology in auditing activities such as audit logs will also help the State Audit Office work more effectively. In recent years, the State Audit Office has deployed the Online Audit Log to help auditors perform audit logs proficiently, and the periodic reporting regime is complete and timely, creating many conveniences for the work of controlling audit quality to ensure timeliness and accuracy. However, the State Audit Office still needs to soon assign the Information Technology Center to coordinate with the State Audit Office of Industry VII (the unit assigned to audit banks and credit institutions) to build an Information System (database) on Audit Programs. Building this database is very useful for systematically monitoring audit subjects, saving time, effort and costs for making plans and finding relevant information as well as facilitating the direction and management of audit activities, including the direction and management to build annual technical plans.

5.3. Group of solutions for audited banks

5.3.1 Strictly implement audit recommendations on law compliance, financial management, and public assets

The State Audit's audit report on banks has clearly shown the current status of compliance with laws, policies, financial and accounting regimes, and the management and use of capital, money and state assets of audited banks. The recommendations of the State Audit for specific banks include: (1) financial and accounting management; (2) management and use of capital, money and state assets; (3) safety issues in operations; (4) implementation of State Resolutions and policies; (5) land management and use; (6) public debt management. The current situation analyzed in Chapter 4 has shown that banks have somewhat seriously implemented the audit recommendations of the State Audit. Of which, the recommendations on financial handling have been implemented 80.2%, and the recommendations on financial and accounting management of banks have basically been implemented. However, many banks have not implemented the recommendations sufficiently and on time. Therefore, in the coming time, to improve and enhance operational efficiency, banks need to more seriously and thoroughly implement audit recommendations. To do this, leaders

Audited banks must be responsible for implementing and directing units in the system to implement seriously and promptly. Banks also need to have a specialized department to monitor the implementation of audit recommendations at the units, and this department also needs to coordinate with the Audit Teams of the VII sector to report on the progress, difficulties and advantages in implementing audit recommendations.

5.3.2. Improve the quality of financial reports

A survey of bank leaders shows that accurate and effective audit reports from the State Audit Office will contribute to improving management efficiency at banks. Some proposed solutions are as follows:

Firstly, towards applying International Accounting Standards (IFRS) in accounting. Among the accounting standards commonly used in the world, IFRS is considered the most reasonable and progressive standard for accounting in banking and financial enterprises. Therefore, financial enterprises

– Banks can study the suitability of this accounting standard for the characteristics of this enterprise’s business operations and its suitability with current domestic accounting standards. If there are many advantages, enterprises can experiment with accounting and preparing financial statements according to this system of standards. In addition, enterprises need to make efforts to provide information in English, helping foreign investors and analysts to easily access, analyze and use it as a basis for comparison in their research.

Second, consistent accounting system and use of audited financial statements. Nowadays, more and more banks in particular and businesses in general are realizing the benefits of applying a unified accounting system according to a set of books. For example, keeping a set of books will help reduce costs and time, because in some cases, the effect of saving time and costs is much greater than the benefits obtained from using multiple accounting systems for different economic purposes. In addition, the transparency of accounting books with tax authorities and the disclosure of financial information to the market will help bring reputation and prestige to investors, customers and partners, thereby leading to efficiency in business results. Along with that,

Businesses should also use auditing services from independent auditing companies. Although it costs a lot, auditing companies will detect errors in the company's accounting records, thereby advising so that the accounting records more accurately reflect the nature of the business activities of the enterprise.

5.3.3. Strengthening credit management

Banks need to improve the quality of appraisal and management of finance and public assets as indicated in the audit report. Specifically, banks need to closely appraise the source of debt repayment, fully analyze risks, correctly determine the need for loans and loan terms, fully assess the feasibility and effectiveness of the loan plan, rectify existing problems in legal documents, collateral documents, regularly and periodically re-evaluate collateral and account according to regulations, review early recovery of loans that are not in accordance with regulations, classify debts and set up provisions, review the overall reduction of accrued interest that is considered difficult to recover, recover interest exemption and reduction fees for customers that are not in accordance with regulations, etc.

In addition, banks must strengthen post-lending inspection and supervision, especially monitoring the use of capital for the right purpose; regularly monitor and evaluate to promptly identify unusual signs in the ability of enterprises to fulfill their debt repayment obligations; promptly detect and strictly handle violations of the law and internal regulations in credit granting activities. Currently, a number of banks are investing in corporate bonds. However, this activity is potentially risky when some banks have a large proportion of corporate bond investment balance in total assets and continues to increase rapidly. Therefore, banks need to strengthen control over corporate bond investment activities; actively implement debt control measures to limit the occurrence of bad debts; improve assessment, appraisal capacity and credit risk management efficiency.

5.3.4. Building an internal audit system and a modern resource management system

The application of modern resource management technologies helps banks to monitor business performance scientifically, manage business units effectively remotely and update quickly and accurately the developments of business units, helping managers to accurately grasp the trends for their business products. Building an internal control system

A strong system helps banks assess the business's performance and monitor the operation of the system. To build an internal control system and a modern accounting system, businesses can hire professional partners in the field of system software. Currently, many domestic and international businesses have appeared to provide this service effectively at a reasonable cost.

5.3.5 Application of modern information technology trends

In its audit reports, the State Audit Office always recommends that banks focus on investing in and building modern information technology systems to ensure that the system operates safely, continuously and effectively, and to respond to changes in current shopping and service consumption trends. Some of the information technology trends that banks should aim for are as follows:

One is the use of fintech technology. The entry of fintech companies, becoming competitors and partners of commercial banks in providing high-tech banking services to customers.

Second, the increasing use of cloud technology for core services to replace traditional storage technology. This trend has become evident in the global banking industry in recent years, helping banks save a lot of costs, space, as well as enhance security in data storage and management.

Third, investing in and upgrading the Core banking system (core banking software), security technology, and risk management system is also a mandatory requirement in the context of increasingly diverse and modern banking services in an increasingly uncertain environment. Unlike many businesses, Core banking is a mandatory application for each bank, however, this investment does not take place once but must be continuously upgraded. Currently, the time between Core banking upgrades is being shortened due to the rapid development of financial services provided by banks, the increase in transaction volume as well as the requirement for data recording to serve the calculation of safety ratios, or for making management and operational decisions of the board of directors.

Fourth, General Ledger (GL) technology and data mining along with in-depth analysis in building business plans and long-term development strategies.

is a very new trend of the banking system in the world. Investing in this direction will help banks record in detail and fully the data that banks want to have about transactions, habits, customer behavior... thereby turning this data into a useful source of information for banks in evaluating and analyzing customer behavior in order to develop appropriate and effective business plans and strategies.

5.4. Some other recommendations for implementing the solution

5.4.1. Recommendations on further improving the legal status of the State Audit Office

Recently, the position and role of the State Audit have been enhanced through the State Audit being enshrined in the 2013 Constitution and accordingly the 2005 State Audit Law has been replaced by the 2015 State Audit Law. However, the practical activities since the beginning of 2016 have shown that the state inspection and audit activities at units and projects are still overlapping; the same content is inspected by many inspection and audit agencies and different, even contradictory conclusions are given. This causes inconvenience to the audited units and undermines the strictness of the law. To resolve this situation, the State Audit, with its function as a specialized agency, inspecting public finance and public assets, an agency established by the National Assembly, needs to continue to enhance its legal status and role in inspecting public finance and public assets. While there are no conditions to promulgate the Law, the National Assembly needs to soon issue a Resolution stipulating that “ the State Audit Office is the supreme financial inspection agency of the State”, so that in the event that the same content is given by inspection and audit agencies with different opinions, the opinion of the State Audit Office is the final decision and has the highest legal value. This not only enhances the legal status of the State Audit Office but also enhances the strictness of the law through the recommendations of inspection and audit agencies.

In addition, to improve the quality of auditing in general, it is necessary to have a guiding document in the direction of enhancing the independence of the State Auditor General in the form of exemptions as for National Assembly Deputies; the right to merge, separate, and dissolve affiliated units; the right to prescribe the contents and scope of auditing that other Laws do not have specific guidance on. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the propaganda work on the functions, tasks, and roles of the State Audit so that agencies, units, and people understand and support the auditing activities of the State Audit, limiting the lack of

Coordination or lack of coordination of audited units. There should be strict sanctions for units that do not coordinate in auditing activities such as intentionally prolonging the time to provide records and documents or providing dishonest records and documents.

5.4.2. Recommendations for the State Bank

The State Bank needs to coordinate with the State Audit, the Ministry of Finance, and the State Securities Commission in inspecting and supervising the operations of banks as well as implementing annual audit conclusions for banks.

The State Bank needs to develop specific coordination regulations between the Banking Supervision Agency and the State Audit Office in reporting serious violations that have been discovered or suspected to enhance the role of the State Audit Office and the State Audit Office in preventing, detecting and reporting serious violations that may affect the safety of the Vietnamese banking system.

5.4.3 Recommendations for the Audit Training and Development School under the State Audit

One of the most important factors to improve the audit quality of the State Audit Office is the factor related to human resources, including the professional qualifications and ethics of the State Audit Office. Therefore, the School of Auditing Staff Training and Development needs to further strengthen its role, including: training and development functions, scientific research functions, and the function of organizing and implementing training and consulting services on finance, accounting, auditing, etc. In the near future, the School needs to have an orientation and roadmap to become an Auditing Academy, perfecting the organizational structure to meet the training needs of staff and auditors inside and outside the industry.

CONCLUDE

The basic contents of the Framework for the Development Strategy of the State Audit for the period 2020-2030 and vision to 2035 include 8 contents: Completing the legal basis for the organization and operation of the State Audit; Strategy for developing the organizational system of the State Audit; Strategy for developing human resources; Strategy for improving audit quality; Strategy for international integration and cooperation; Strategy for developing facilities, information, propaganda and scientific research; Strategy for developing IT. Thus, it can be seen the importance of improving the audit quality of the State Audit because quality is decisive in affirming the prestige, effectiveness and efficiency of the State Audit's operations.

The thesis "Factors affecting the quality of auditing banks conducted by the State Audit" has contributed to pointing out the factors affecting the quality of auditing financial statements at banks, including 3 groups of factors: the group of factors belonging to the State Audit (Professional capacity, Professional skills, Work experience, Compliance with State Audit standards, Professional prudence and confidentiality, Integrity, independence and objectivity), the group of factors belonging to the auditing unit (Working conditions of the State Audit, Auditing methods/processes, Auditing quality control system of the State Audit) and other factors (Factors belonging to the audited banks, factors belonging to the legal environment for auditing activities). The results of quantitative analysis show that the above factors all directly affect the quality of auditing by the State Audit when conducting audits at banks. In which, the factors of the State Audit's quality control system, audit methods/processes and the State Audit's expertise are the three factors that have the strongest impact on audit quality.

Therefore, a number of recommendations have been proposed to improve the quality of financial statement audits at banks conducted by the State Audit Office. The solutions include: (1) improving the quality of audit quality control activities, (2) perfecting audit methods and procedures, (3) building and enhancing the professional capacity of the State Audit team, (4) improving the requirements for professional ethics of State Auditors, (5) improving the working conditions of State Auditors. At the same time, solutions are also proposed for

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