Vietnam to not audit Vinashin this year

The State Audit of Vietnam (SAV) said that it will not audit the state-owned Vinashin Business Group this year despite startling revelations of the group.

That move is aimed to avoid overlapping with the Government Inspectorate which plans to inspect the firm’s operations from now to the end-year, Le Minh Khai, SAV’s deputy director said, adding that SAV may have to delay the Vinashin case at least until 2011.

He also emphasized that SAV planned to audit Vinashin many times since 2006 as Vinashin operated as a general corporation.

“In 2008 when Vinashin fell into financial difficulties, the SAV planned to audit it. However, the GIA decided to inspect it at that time. In 2009, the government put off the inspection of the group due to the economic downturn”, Khai explained.

“In 2010, we continued to propose to audit Vinashin. Yet, so not to overlap with the GIA, we had to postpone our plan next year”, Khai added.

As being one of the largest state-owned corporations, Vianshin Group is facing total debt of up to US$4.2 billion, estimated to be 10 times higher than its registered capital and three times higher than the SAV standard. (VIR)

Tags: Vietnam shipping industry, Vinashin restructure