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Economics

Integrated Financial and Procurement Audits for Bank Financed Projects – The China Experience

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Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI) for Bank financed projects have carried out financial and procurement audits. In Poland, this initially started more than a decade ago and there have been several other examples over the past years in other countries.

By the end of FY16, China National Audit Office (CNAO), the SAI in China, had successfully completed its third year of integrated financial and procurement audits for 27 Bank financed projects and accounting for 28% of the total active portfolio of China. This is a big leap from only 3 projects in the first year of FY14.

Rome was not built in a day. CNAO has been the external auditor of all Bank-financed projects in China since 1984. It conducts project audits in accordance with the Government Auditing Standards of the P.R. China and the International Standards on Auditing. The Foreign Funds Application Audit Department and the Audit Service Center of CNAO, and the Provincial Audit Institutions conduct audits on Bank financed projects and issue the audit reports in their names. There are about 120-130 financial audit reports submitted to the Bank every year. CNAO’s audit reports not only include the auditor’s opinion on project financial statements, they also include opinions on procurement compliance as this is an important aspect of the review of the eligibility of expenditures. This procedure is in full compliance with the Audit Law of P. R. China, which requires auditing of authenticity, legality and beneficial results of the budgetary revenues and expenditures or financial revenues and expenditures of public funds. It was under this context that in FY 14, we started piloting the use of CNAO for integrated financial and procurement audits in some Bank-financed projects.

A good start is half way to success. To help auditors have a good start, the Bank procurement team of Beijing conducted several procurement training workshops for CNAO staff. These learning events were very helpful and served not only to equip auditors with sound knowledge on Bank procedures but also to clarify concerns and exchange experiences. At the beginning of FY16, before audit processes are launched, CNAO and the Bank reached an agreement on the audit scope, reporting format, sampling rate and hands-on support arrangements. In the first year of review, auditors expressed their concerns about (i) the heavy workload in some rural projects with hundreds of contracts for review; (ii) reluctance to assess procurement risk in the report as they were not familiar with the project as a whole; and (iii) complexity of the procurement review template. These concerns were jointly considered, discussed and appropriately resolved with efforts from both sides. Currently, CNAO audit reports are a very good source of project’s procurement information and are in full compliance with the Bank’s procurement post review requirements.
 

Meeting and learning from a practitioner
CNAO delegation, Photo: world Bank

Meeting and learning from a practitioner. The World Bank’s China and Poland Offices organized a study tour to Poland. On September 12th, 2016; a CNAO delegation visited NIK, the Supreme Audit…

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Economics

National News Bureau Of Thailand

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BANGKOK (NNT) – The Commerce Ministry has launched measures to increase rice exports to 6 million tons this year, valued at around 150 billion baht, with Indonesia, China, Bangladesh and Iraq set to be the main markets under government-to-government (G2G) deals.

Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit said G2G deals and a campaign to make Thai rice more recognizable around the world will spearhead efforts to increase the export volume from last year’s 5.7 million tons.

He said the ministry is working with the Thai Rice Exporters Association to promote Thai rice under the “Think Rice, Think Thailand” campaign, adding that Thailand successfully made Thai rice become better known in Canada, increasing its exports to the country by 21% to 120,000 tons last year.

Mr Jurin said one of the distinctive characteristics of Thai rice is its very low sugar content. This would make it the preferred choice among Canadians as 28% of the Canadian population has high blood sugar levels.

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Economics

Bangkok Metropolitan Energy Authority (MEA) partners with Chineses owned Newsky Energy (Thailand) Company

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BANGKOK (NNT) – The Metropolitan Energy Authority (MEA) is looking into co-investment opportunities with private firm Newsky Energy Thailand for the construction of two new waste-to-energy power plants in Bangkok, promoting the expansion of alternative energy in the metropolitan area along with environmental protection.

The MEA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with private firm Newsky Energy Thailand on co-investment arrangements for waste-to-energy power plants in the Nong Khaem and On Nut districts of Bangkok, a project costing about 10 billion baht.

MEA Governor Kirapat Jiamset, said today that each of the waste-to-energy plants will have a generating capacity of 35 megawatts of electricity using 1,000 tons of waste as fuel each day.

Mr Kirapat said the two power plants will be introduced along with the smart grid system, which allows communities in service areas to receive power entirely from these plants, independent of the main power lines.

New Sky Energy Thailand CEO He Ning said the company has been working with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to operate a waste-to-energy incinerator at Nong Khaem dump, which converts 500 tons of garbage into electricity each day.

Operating since 2016, Mr Ning said the incinerator has been continuously feeding electricity to the MEA, with systems in place to take care of the environment and nearby communities.

The proposed new waste-to-energy plants are currently in the public consultation process. The construction of these projects is expected to commence later this year, and come online in the electricity grid in 2024.

According to the Department of Business Development, Newsky Energy (Thailand) Company Limited is currently registered as an electric power generation and transmission company in Thailand. The company is 100% owned by Chinese investors and reported a -7.25% net profit in the fiscal year 2019.

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Thailand sets export growth target at 4% for 2021

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BANGKOK (NNT) – Thailand has seen export growth of 0.35 per cent in the first month of the year. The Commerce Minister has ordered the Department of International Trade Promotion to advance an action plan to accelerate growth, which is set at 4 per cent this year.

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