The top firms were PwC Vietnam and Deloitte Vietnam,
subsidiaries of global giants PwC and Deloitte.

The eight others included Grant Thornton Vietnam Co Ltd, Vietnam Auditing and Valuation Co Ltd, An Viet Auditing Co Ltd and RSM Vietnam.

In 2018, only Ernst & Young Vietnam was rated “Good” by the SSC among seven companies that were evaluated.

According to the SSC, most firms strictly followed rules on quality control, recruitment and training, and the archiving of financial reports.

But there were problems among the 10 firms that were evaluated in 2019, including prudent client evaluation and acceptance, lack of insightful risk-control assessment, insufficient inventory checks, and lack of auditing on companies’ investments in associate businesses and long-term projects.

In addition, the firms did not ask their clients to provide sufficient documents on their financial performance and failed to collect evidence from stakeholders to provide appropriate feedback on companies’ financial reports.

The SSC also suspended the licences of four individual auditors at Vietnam Auditing and Valuation Co Ltd, and Dat Viet Auditing and Consulting Co Ltd.

The two firms have a total of 39 individual auditors that are certified by the SSC.

The individuals made poor judgments on financial reports provided by MBG Group (HNX: MBG) and Kim Vi Inox Import-Export Production JSC (HNX: KVC).

Poor professional standards among local firms explained why foreign companies dominated the sector, the SSC reported.

The SSC also asked listed firms that had employed unqualified firms to audit them to review their financial reports to meet existing regulations.

According to the Ministry of Finance, PwC Vietnam, Deloitte Vietnam, Ernst & Young Vietnam and KPMG held 50.41 percent of the market’s total revenue in 2018, worth 3.92 trillion VND (170 million USD), while their employees accounted for only 12.47 percent of the workforce.