Following the success of the 1st ASEANSAI Focus Group Discussion (FGD) on Revenue Auditing, the 2nd FGD was held in Cambodiana Hotel, Phnom Penh, Cambodia from 18 to 20 July 2016. The FGD was facilitated by Mr. Paul Chai Sin Ngee, Deputy Director of Customs Audit Branch, and SAI Malaysia as Project Leader. The 2nd FGD was attended by 19 participants from SAI Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
Opening remark of the Chairman of ASEANSAI KSC was delivered by Mr. Paul Chai Sin Ngee, Deputy Director of National Audit Department of Malaysia. On behalf of the Auditor General of Malaysia, he hoped that all delegates will have a fruitful discussion on the General Guidelines on Revenue Audit before finalizing it in the third meeting.
The FGD was officially opened by H.E. Madam Som Kim Suor, Auditor General of the National Audit Authority of Cambodia and Chairperson of ASEANSAI. She welcomed all participants to Phnom Penh, Cambodia and hoped that all participants will actively exchange views in order to bring up more valuable inputs for developing a complete and effective final project document. She was convinced that this FGD will become an important platform for experts and facilitators to discuss and share knowledge on revenue auditing and a comprehensive document with concrete foundation will be drafted before bringing forward to third meeting in October 2016. She expressed her appreciation to the Knowledge Sharing Committee and all ASEANSAI members for its concerted efforts and for sending their experienced and capable teams to this and subsequent meetings.
After presentation and discussion, all participants agreed on the contents and draft report as presented, SAI Malaysia will finalized the report and could amend the respective country paper accordingly to ensure better understanding of the issues presented in the country papers and country papers will be included in the Research Paper Project as annex.
During the meeting, it was also agreed that revenue audits can be carried out through financial audit (ascertaining revenue collected has been properly accounted for); compliance audits (revenue collected is in compliance to tax laws and regulations) and performance audits (ascertaining the effectiveness and efficiency of tax authorities in collecting revenue). As such, the auditing guideline should incorporate ISSAI on financial, compliance as well as performance auditing. Thus, relevant ISSAI should be used as references. [SAI Malaysia]
