Vietnam: Prerequisites of an assurance service contract must be considered before being agreed upon or renewal of contract

According to the Vietnam’s Framework for assurance service contracts promulgated together with Circular No. 69/2015/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam, prerequisites of an assurance service contract must be considered before being agreed upon or renewal of contract, including:

- Roles and responsibility of relevant parties (including: responsible party, measuring or evaluating party, and service buyer) that suit the situation of the contract;

- The assurance service contract must satisfy all of the conditions below:

+ The subject matter is appropriate;

+ The criteria to be applied by auditors to expression of information about the subject matter are suitable for the situation of the service contract, including those having the characteristics mentioned in paragraph 44 of this Framework;

+ The criteria to be applied by auditors to expression of information about the subject matter are available to users;

+ Auditors anticipate that they can collect necessary evidence for giving their conclusion;

+ The auditor’s conclusion is made in writing in the form that is suitable for the reasonable assurance services or limited assurance services;

+ In case of limited assurance services, the contract must contain appropriate purposes, including requirements for auditors to reach the acceptable level of assurance.

Besides, according to Circular No. 69/2015/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam, when the assurance service contract is accepted, the auditor must not convert an assurance service contract to a non-assurance service contract, or from a reasonable assurance service contract to a limited assurance service without justifiable reasons. Justifiable reasons for converting a service contract may be the change of the situation that affects the report user’s demands, or the service nature is misunderstood. If there are changes, the auditor must not overlook the evidence collected before services are changed. If adequate evidence cannot be collected to give a reasonable assurance conclusion, the auditor must not convert a reasonable assurance service contract into a limited assurance service contract.

View more details at the Circular No. 69/2015/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam, effective from January 01, 2016.

Ty Na

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