The Government Office has announced the PM’s opinion on auditing results of the SCIC, in which the PM requested the Finance Ministry and SCIC learn from their mistakes.

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According to the PM, SCIC is established to implement new policies to promote privatization of state-owned companies and to accumulate the state’s resources to carry out goals.

Acknowledging SCIC’s difficulties in being a new type of corporation, while it still has to follow the common rules for state-owned firms, the PM said that SCIC’s salary and bonus policy must still observe the current regulations. He asked the Finance Ministry and SCIC to seriously learn from their mistakes and urgently submit to the government a draft decree on the organization and operations of SCIC.

As regards the State Audit of Vietnam Agency’s auditing report at SCIC, the PM asked the Finance Ministry to review the operations and implementation of the financial management and accounting regulations, labor management mechanism, salary and income of SCIC’s employees.

The Finance Ministry was also instructed to guide SCIC and Jetstar Pacific Airlines to report to the foundation the conditions for salary payment to their staff and allowances to officials who assume two positions at the same time.

The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs was assigned to cooperate with the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Finance. They were to make clear the legality and reasonableness of SCIC’s calculation and salary plans for 2008 as well as actual income earned by members of its management board and the general director. Suggested measures were needed to deal with the State Audit of Vietnam Agency’s conclusions on salary and income policy at SCIC.

According to the auditing report released in early December 2009, the salary fund for SCIC’s officials exceeded the approved amount of nearly 1.7 billion dong. The approved average income for SCIC’s officials is 40 million dong/month but the real income in 2008 was 78.5 million dong.

Auditors also asked SCIC to make clear the responsibilities of Jetstar Pacific Airlines in petrol hedging operations, which caused serious losses. While it made losses, this airline still paid high salaries and bonuses to its officials.

Two weeks after state auditors released the report, the Finance Ministry and SCIC sent explanations to the related agencies. On January 7 2010, the former general director of Jetstar Pacific was arrested for investigation of “irresponsibility causing serious consequences”.

PV