Company reports $16M profit-loss discrepancy due to outdated systems

By Tat Dat January 13, 2025 | 08:35 pm PT

Phuong Anh International JSC, which originally reported profits of VND106 billion (US$4.2 million) in 2023 before actually losing nearly VND290 billion, has blamed outdated systems and inexperienced staff for this.

A person using a calculator. Illustration by Pexels

The State Securities Commission of Vietnam fined the company VND185 million at the end of that year for delayed and inaccurate financial disclosures.

The company’s unaudited financial reports had showed a profit of nearly VND106.5 billion.

But then came its audited report, and the profits turned into losses of VND288.9 billion.

In a recent explanation to the SSC, the company claimed the errors stemmed from data entry and file conversion issues. There had been high accounting staff turnover and new hires lacked experience or expertise, it said. Its outdated accounting systems compounded the problem, leading to file processing errors and inaccurate data, it said.

"This is our first instance of reporting discrepancies, but revenues and other figures [were precise]."

The SSC has penalized several companies in recent years for discrepancies between unaudited and audited financial reports.

In 2024 Rang Dong Holding was fined VND150 million for initially reporting profits of VND17.3 billion for the previous year before correcting to losses of VND117.6 billion.

Quoc Te Holding got hit with a VND175 million fine for underreporting its 2023 loss as VND4.4 billion instead of the actual VND70.8 billion.