The Commissioner of Audit Ho Veng On presented the “Audit Report on the General Account 2020” to the Legislative Assembly today, introducing the main content of the report in detail and the work carried out.
According to the law, the General Account is part of the report on budget execution, and the Commission of Audit (CA) is responsible for conducting financial audit on budget execution and then preparing the audit report on the General Account. At the end of May this year, the Financial Services Bureau submitted the “General Account 2020 of Macao Special Administrative Region” and the relevant information to CA, and CA completed the audit in accordance with all applicable regulations and rules by the end of September. In addition, the Financial Services Bureau discloses the information of Financial Reserve through the note of the “Integrated Ordinary Account of Macao Special Administrative Region”, including the annual transfer of funds between the Treasury and the Financial Reserve, the investment profit and loss, and year-end balance, in order to appropriately reflect the information of Financial Reserve within the General Account. For the accuracy and authenticity of the information, CA also reviews the latest status of the Financial Reserve.
Ho Veng On stated in the Assembly that with regard to the General Account 2020, the total amount of revenue, expenses and assets of the “Integrated Ordinary Account of Macao Special Administrative Region” reviewed by CA reached to 101.7 billion, 96.1 billion and 114 billion respectively, covering the general revenue of the Macao SAR, 40 non-autonomous departments, 13 departments with administrative autonomy, four independent accounts and the central account of the Treasury, as well as the management accounts of 13 departments with administrative autonomy and 39 autonomous departments and institutions, with a total of 5.74 million accounting records. The balance of Financial Reserve demonstrated in the note 27 of the Integrated Account was 616.1 billion, involving 1.56 million accounting records. As to the “Special Institutions’ Aggregated Account”, the total amount of revenue, expenses and assets stood at 20.3 billion, 18.3 billion and 411.3 billion respectively, including 8 special institutions with 1.87 million accounting records.
In 2019, it was the first year in which the Government implemented the new Budget Framework Law in the financial operation and the preparation of public accounts. Taking this into account, CA fully upgraded and enhanced the Auditor Office with the great support of the IT Center of China National Audit Office. After a series of auditing practices and adjustments made to the system last year, the final version was completed and applied this year, thus increasing the efficiency and accuracy of the audit work.
Before the presentation of “Audit Report on the General Account 2020” to the Chief Executive, CA already performed the established verification procedures, covered all relevant audit risks and completed all audit procedures. Meanwhile, the above-mentioned work was subjected to an internal audit conducted by the independent internal audit entity, so as to provide a reliable and quality basis for the expression of audit opinion.
According to the audit result, the financial statements of the General Account 2020 has been prepared in accordance with laws, reflecting, in all material aspects, the execution or operation results of SAR Government in 2020 under the respective adoptive systems, and the financial position as at 31 December 2020. Therefore, the Commissioner of Audit expressed an unqualified opinion on the “General Account 2020 of Macao Special Administrative Region”.
The Audit Report was submitted to the Chief Executive, with copy to the Legislative Assembly, and was presented in the Legislative Assembly. Full text of the Audit Report can be downloaded from CA’s website, and is freely available at CA Office during office hours.
