The State Securities Commission (SSC) has just issued a decision to suspend the status of auditor approved to audit public interest entities in the securities sector for KPMG Company Limited.

Specifically, the decision of the State Securities Commission suspends the status of auditor approved to audit public interest entities in the securities sector until December 31, 2024 for auditor Tran Dinh Vinh of KPMG Company Limited.

KPMG and other auditing firms' leaders have just had their auditor qualifications suspended.

It is known that Mr. Tran Dinh Vinh is Deputy General Director, Audit Department of KPMG Audit. This is one of the largest professional service providers in Vietnam (belonging to the big 4 auditing companies), established in 1994.

Previously, many leaders of other auditing companies were also suspended from their auditor status by the regulatory agency. In particular, at ECOVIS AFA VIETNAM Auditing - Valuation and Consulting Company Limited, the State Securities Commission suspended the auditor status until the end of 2024 for Mr. Pham Quang Trung, General Director, along with 2 other auditors.

In October, the regulator also suspended S&S Consulting - Auditing Company Limited's accreditation to audit public interest entities in the securities sector from October 11 to December 31, 2024. The company's auditors were also suspended, including Deputy General Director Pham Van Hai and three other auditors.

At International CPA Company Limited (iCPA), two Deputy General Directors, Nguyen Hoang Giang and Tran Thien Thanh, were also suspended along with many other auditors...

At UHY Auditing and Consulting Company Limited, Deputy General Director Nguyen Minh Hung and three other auditors were also suspended from their auditor status until the end of 2024.

Recently, the quality of independent auditors has been of public concern when investigations and handling of several major cases such as those at SCB, Van Thinh Phat, FLC... showed that many auditing organizations and auditors had issued dishonest audit reports, contributing to the leaders of these businesses committing violations.

In the draft amendment to the Law on Independent Auditing that is being published for public consultation, the Ministry of Finance has proposed many regulations to tighten the quality of auditing companies.

Regarding the level of fines for violations, the draft Law proposes to increase the maximum fine to 20 times compared to current regulations and increase the statute of limitations for handling violations from 2 years to 5 years.