A strategy to change the audit process of the state audit office of Vietnam to align with the Australian government audit process

"The audit process of the State Audit Office of Vietnam (SAV) has inherent limitations and weaknesses that need to be addressed in order to keep pace with the development of the SAV. This could be realized if a strategy to change the audit process of the SAV is conducted. The research aims to improve the SAV to meet international auditing standards of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), using the Australian Government audit process as a direct comparison in order to identify issues in the change management processes required for the SAV to introduce Australian Government audit processes and to propose a methodology to resolve these issues. The change management processes are thus the key focus of the research. The evaluative framework was based on the literature, identifying three major issues of concern. They are technology, costs and people. The research design is a combination of document review and semi-structured in-depth individual interview methods. The document review includes analysis of relevant auditing processes, standards, methods, procedures and reports, and policies; and review of change management theories, models and practices. The goal of the document review is to obtain an overall picture of the research topic that informed the in-depth interviews. Semi-structured in-depth individual interviews were selected as the major research methodology because it is able to provide a considerable amount of detailed data and a deeper understanding of the research problem. The research methodology involved the analysis of the interview transcripts using Thematic Content Analysis (TCA). This mutual relationship between the interviews and the document reviews was discussed further in the data synthesis and analysis. In the study, 30 individual interviews were conducted for two groups of stakeholders (auditors and managers of the SAV) at the headquarters of the SAV in Hanoi City, the capital of Vietnam. The research findings indicated agreement over previous attempts by the literature review. These findings suggested that the change management process may face various issues arising from personal barriers to the change, the SAV culture, application of technology to auditing, costs for the change, the SAV auditor human resource quality and training, and the SAV organizational and operational model. The proposed strategic framework to resolve these issues addressed removing personal barriers to the change, improving infrastructure, human resource, training and legal framework of the SAV, and implementing changes in the SAV culture. The research outcomes might be applied to the SAV. These outcomes will assist the SAV in developing an effective audit process complying with international auditing standards and principles in order to ensure transparency and effectiveness of public sector expenditure."--Abstract.