VietNamNet Bridge – The supervisory role of the Audit Association over auditors' ethics needed to be clarified in the Independent Audit bill, lawmakers said yesterday, Nov 19, in a National Assembly discussion that focused on ethics.

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He suggested making it a requirement for eligible auditors to be association members, an idea shared by many other deputies.

Pham Quoc Anh from southern Dong Nai Province and Nguyen Thi Kim Tien from central Ha Tinh Province said part of the association's job should also be to provide professional training and consultancy to auditors.

Auditing was a special job characterised by high professional and ethical requirements, said deputy Nguyen Van Binh of northern Hai Phong City.

"No one has ever been able to prove that the State management of this job should leave out ethics or that the quality of ethics can develop on its own," said Lich.

Many deputies agreed that the existence of an independent audit company very much depended on human honesty and prestige rather than its capital.

Therefore, the current bill is inappropriate in its requirement that general director and directors of an independent auditing company contribute at least one-tenth of its charter capital, they said.

This regulation did not fit the current Enterprise Law either, said Ha Noi's deputy Pham Thi Loan.

"The Enterprise Law allows companies to employ someone who is not a shareholder as general director or director," she said.

Viet Nam currently has only 1,800 licensed auditors, too few to audit the country's 500,000 enterprises.

Archives bill

Deputy Nguyen Duy Nguyen, northern Hai Duong Province, said the draft Archives Law must include the records of the People's Army when the National Assembly resumed its assessment of the proposed legislation yesterday, Nov 19.

"The People's Army and Public Security archives should be added to the bill," the deputy said.

The law is intended to strengthen the State management of the nation's records and eliminate the shortcomings of the National Archive Ordinance of 2001.

Deputies asked for clarification of who will be members of the council that will evaluate the documents to be kept as archives.

They suggested it include scientists and other experts.

Some asked for the regulation of the council's tasks, especially those of its chairman.

The use of a dedicated font, or typeface, in the creation of the archives is expected to be strengthened with the introduction of the law that is scheduled to be approved at the next and last sittings of the 11th National Assembly next year.

The bill stipulates the use of two fonts - one dedicated to the Party and the other, the State.

Typefaces

A number of deputies suggested a single national archive font composed of Party and State typefaces.

But others asked that the two be kept separate as proscribed in the bill.

Many deputies sup-ported the socialisation of the archives but worried about the possibility of trading documents that were State secrets if the regulations governing their management was not sufficiently strict.

They also asked which of the archive services should be socialised, especially the conditions applying to individuals and organisations providing archive services.

Deputies argued that transparent and clear regulations would ensure the archives were effectively secured and used.

Any "roadmap" for the socialisation of the archives should be regulated as this would help the service match the country's socio-economic development, they said.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News