On November 25, 2020, the 5th Annual Meeting of the Central Banks Head of Internal Audit Network of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was held virtually under the chairmanship of Bank Sentral Republik Indonesia (Central Bank of Indonesia), under the theme of "Challenges to internal audit in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic".
The Meeting of the ASEAN Central Banks Head of Internal Audit Network was an initiative of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and is held annually under the rotating chairmanship of the members’ central banks. Under the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s meeting was held virtually with the participation of the Central Banks' Heads of Internal Audit of 10 ASEAN countries and representatives of the ADB Internal Audit. On the side of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), there were leaders of the Internal Audit Department, the Department of Information Technology, and the International Cooperation Department.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made a strong influence on the operations of the central banks in general and the central banks’ internal audits in particular. At the Meeting, the central banks’ representatives shared about the challenges faced by the central banks' internal auditors during the time of the pandemic and the measures that the central banks have implemented in order to fulfil the audit plans and ensure the audit quality, including: assessing newly arising risks; reviewing and adjusting the priorities in the annual audit plans; enhancing the application of information technology in audit operations; deploying remote audits; and amending the reporting methodology.
On behalf of the SBV, Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan - Deputy Director General of the Internal Audit Department - shared about Vietnam's experience at the Meeting. In order to adapt to the social distancing measures, the Internal Audit Department has enhanced the use of information technology in auditing, such as virtual teamwork through applications like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, email, virtual private network (VPN); gradually implementing audits on the basis of digitized documents and data; online sharing and exchanging with the auditees, etc., while reviewing and adjusting the audit plans corresponding to the epidemic control situation in Vietnam, focusing on auditing high-risk areas.
Photos of the ASEAN Central Banks' Heads of Internal Audit attending the virtual Meeting (screenshot)
At the end of the Meeting, the ASEAN Central Banks' Heads of Internal Audit reached an agreement on the necessary and opportunities to amend the audit strategies, especially in promoting the application of information technology in internal audit operations in order to promptly identify and manage any arising risks and challenges, thereby fulfilling the role of "guaranteeing" and "adding value " of the central banks.
VA