State Audit Office says no role in SCB violations

SCB is a private company and its audit is done by commercial audit companies, head of the State Audit Office, Ngo Van Tuan, said at the National Assembly Wednesday.

He was responding to a question from a lawmaker about why the fraud at SCB was never discovered and whether the State Audit Office had anything to do with the case.

Tuan said his agency is only tasked with auditing state-owned companies, not private ones.

Last month property tycoon Truong My Lan was sentenced to death for a scam that caused losses of VND677 trillion ($27 billion) to SCB.

Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc said Wednesday that between 2012 and 2021 SCB hired private companies EY, Deloitte and KPMG, which are among the top professional services providers in the world, to audit its accounts.

They never found anything dubious at the bank.

Violations have been dealt with during the investigation and trial, he said.

The latest audited financial report of SCB, as of June 2021, showed it had VND1 trillion in accumulated profits.

But when the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) took over the bank in October 2022 it was found to have accumulated losses of VND465 trillion.

Phoc said when the State Audit Office looked into the finance of the central bank it "made some remarks concerning the functioning of SCB".

Lan has been found guilty of embezzlement, bribery and violating banking regulations and sentenced to death. She has appealed.

Also in the trial, Le Thanh Ha, deputy chief inspector of the State Audit Office, received a three-year jail sentence for abusing her powers while performing official duties.