HÀ NỘI – Auditor General of the State Audit Office of Vietnam (SAV) Hồ Đức Phớc has called for stronger international co-operation in environmental auditing, as it is a new area relating to many nations.
The SAV is set to host the 14th Assembly of the Asian Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI) in Hà Nội from Wednesday to Saturday. The event will take place under the theme ‘Environmental Audit for Sustainable Development’.
Phớc said this will be a chance for the SAV to boost co-operation and share experience in environmental auditing with other countries while demonstrating its contributions to global efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including solving environmental challenges.
He noted that environmental pollution poses challenges to many countries around the globe, forcing them to work together to seek common solutions to biological degradation and climate change.
In Việt Nam, environmental issues have received significant attention in recent years. Much of the State budget and private resources have been invested in environmental protection. An urgent problem now is how to monitor and control the use of those resources, he said.
The Auditor General added the SAV has set up a working group on environmental auditing and included environmental auditing in its plan for implementing the SAV development strategy until 2022.
This is an important development in the SAV’s activities when the office has been developing new fields of auditing in line with international trends, Phớc said.
The SAV has taken measures to boost international co-operation in environmental auditing to exchange experience and coordinate to realise common targets. Notably, it has worked with the Lao and Cambodian sides to audit water issues of the Mekong River.
At the upcoming 14th ASOSAI Assembly, participants will clarify the role of environmental auditing in assisting governments to attain the SDGs, give an overview of environmental issues and discuss these issues’ relationship with the SDGs of the United Nations.
The event is expected to contribute documents, commitments and effective policies and solutions to regional and global supreme audit institutions to develop environmental auditing in the region, Phớc added. – VNS