On 02 June 2023, at Liberty Central Saigon Hotel, No. 117-179, Le Thanh Ton Street, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thanh, Deputy General Director of Baker Tilly & AC had sharing at the seminar “Internal Control over Financial Reporting” jointly held by VNIDA in and IIA Vietnam, CFO Vietnam. This seminar was to provide an overview of the meaning and goals of an ICFR as well as an approach to set up an ICFR system under good practice that works for all enterprises.

General information of the seminar

This seminar also welcomed the participation of other speakers from large and reputable enterprises in the same sector, including Ms. Luong Thi Anh Tuyet, Partner from PWC Vietnam; Mr. Le Thanh Liem, Board Member and CFO of Vinamilk and Ms. Dang Thi Lai, Board Member and CFO of PNJ. The speakers had shared about comprehensive views of the role of the internal audit system and answered challenging questions such as:

• How many policies, regulations and procedures does an enterprise need to effectively set up an ICFR to prevent risks while still ensuring benefits and costs?
• What exactly is an ICFR?
• Where should an enterprise start?
• How to set up an ICFR?

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thanh – Partner of Baker Tilly A&C (the second from the left) at the seminar

At this seminar, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thanh, Partner of Baker Tilly A&C talked about three main contents, including: (1) what should be noted and key points of the internal control system to ensure the true and fair presentation of Financial Statements according to IFRS in the context that IFRS will be applied gradually and widely according to the roadmap in Vietnam and there is still a significant gap between Vietnam Accounting Standards (VAS) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS); (2) How ICFR support enterprises from the view of independent audit?; and (3) What are the differences in the roles of the independent audit and the internal audit in supporting internal control system setting-up for the preparation and presentation of the Financial Statements?

Enterprises’ representatives attending the seminar

Regardless of enterprise types, public entities or household business, large or small scale, all enterprises should set up a complete system of policies, regulations and procedures that makes up an Internal Control over Financial Reporting (ICFR). A good internal control over financial reporting will make an important contribution to the prevention of fraud and material misstatement in transactions and financial reporting.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thanh, Partner of Baker Tilly A&C taking a snapshot with the seminar organizers and the speakers

Baker Tilly A&C hopes that the attendees of this seminar will get a lot of useful information from the speakers' sharing about the roles, benefits as well as difficulties and challenges when setting up an Internal Control over Financial Reporting at the enterprises.