As per invited by the president of the Court of Auditors of Portugal, Guilherme d'Oliveira Martins, the Commissioner of Audit of Macau SAR, Ho Veng On visited Lisbon and Azores last week, to discuss the issues relating to the routinization of the professional training courses. This is the first visit of Ho Veng On to the Court of Auditors of Portugal since he served as the Commissioner of Audit.

After the meeting with the vice president of the Court of Auditors of Portugal, Carlos Morais Antunes, the delegation of Commission of Audit of Macao SAR(CA) attended a welcoming banquet at the invitation of Guilherme d'Oliveira Martins. Ho Veng On said that, despite the signing of the cooperation protocol with the Portugal’s Court of Auditors in 2001, the exchange between the two institutions only came to materialize in 2013. He also pointed out that Portugal has a long history in the aspect of auditing, through the cooperation with the Court of Auditors of Portugal will allow CA’s auditors to be better acquainted with the auditing standards of the European Union, as well as the most updated techniques and knowledge in auditing, in order to broaden the technical knowledge and ensure the quality of the audit results.

Guilherme d'Oliveira Martins replied to Ho Veng On saying that the Court of Auditors of Portugal would be pleased to cooperate with CA in the aspect of personnel training. He pointed out that, after the practical visit of CA staff to Lisbon in 2013, the Court of Auditors of Portugal has successively organized experts to Macao since last year, to deliver special training courses in different areas including Law, Accounting, Financial Audit, Information Technology, etc, in order to strengthen the cooperation on professional training. In the future, CA and the Court of Auditors of Portugal will continue to maintain the connection for the exchange of experience and sharing of knowledge in different fields of auditing.

During the visit in Lisbon, Ho Veng On also met with the Ambassador of China in Portugal, Huang Songfu. He made a presentation on CA’s work in recent years and the strengthened connection with the audit institutions of Portuguese-speaking countries, while Huang Songfu spoke about the recovery of Portugal’s economic activities. Then Ho Veng On and the delegation were arranged to visit the Court Chamber of Azores and to understand the operation of it. According to the legal regime of Portugal, Azores and Madeira are autonomous regions of Portugal and have locally exclusive authorities of executive, legislative and judicial.