In accordance with article 3 of Law n.o 11/1999, the Audit Commission conducts financial audit on the budget execution of the Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region and prepares the audit report on the General Account. Today, at the plenary meeting of the Legislative Assembly, the Audit Commissioner, Mr. Ho Veng On, presented the main content of the report in detail and the specific situation of the work carried out.

The Audit Commission received the “General Account of the Macao Special Administrative Region for the year 2021” and the relevant information submitted by the Financial Services Bureau at the end of May this year. The “6.18” COVID-19 pandemic had a great impact on the audit work during the preparation of the audit report; nevertheless, the staff of the Audit Commission made a concerted effort to overcome most of the difficulties. Determined to fully conclude the tasks before the end of September, as defined, the Audit Commission, through the provision of adequate personnel to ensure the execution of all tasks in accordance with the established schedule, prepared the audit report of the General Account for the year 2021, after auditing the “Integrated Ordinary Account of the Macao Special Administrative Region” and the “Aggregated Account of the Special Institutions”. In addition, since the Financial Services Bureau discloses the information of the Financial Reserve through the notes of the “Integrated Ordinary Account of the Macao Special Administrative Region”, the Audit Commission also reviewed the Financial Reserve for the year 2021 to ensure the accuracy and authenticity of the information.

In the Assembly, Mr. Ho Veng On stated that the Audit Commission reviewed the revenues, expenses and assets of the “Integrated Ordinary Account of the Macao Special Administrative Region” for the year 2021, the amounts of which had, respectively, reached 94.8 billion, 89.2 billion and 66.4 billion patacas, covering the general revenue of the MSAR, the expenses, assets and liabilities of 41 non-autonomous departments and 15 departments with administrative autonomy, the expenses of four separate chapters, the Treasury’s central account of assets, liabilities and net assets, as well as the management accounts of 15 departments with administrative autonomy and 39 autonomous departments and institutions, with a total of 4.51 million accounting records. The balance of the Financial Reserve revealed in the note 27 of the Integrated Account was 643.2 billion, involving 2.07 million accounting records.

As to the “Aggregated Account of the Special Institutions”, the amount of revenues, expenses and assets was 17.1 billion, 12 billion and 379.8 billion, respectively, involving 2.2 million accounting records of 8 special institutions.

Before the presentation of the “Audit Report on the General Account for the year 2021” to the Chief Executive, the Audit Commission had already made a description of all relevant audit risks and completed all audit procedures through the established verification procedures. In addition, the above-mentioned work had been subject to an internal audit conducted by the respective independent internal entity, so as to provide a reliable and quality basis for the expression of audit opinion.

According to the audit results, the financial statements of the General Account for the year 2021 were prepared in accordance with the laws, reflecting, in all material aspects, the execution or operation results of the MSAR Government in the year 2021 under the respective systems, and the financial position as at 31 December 2021. Therefore, the Commissioner of Audit issued an unqualified audit opinion on the “General Account of the Macao Special Administrative Region for the year 2021”.

The Audit Report was submitted to the Chief Executive and sent to the Legislative Assembly, and was later presented in the Assembly plenary meeting. Full text of the Audit Report can be downloaded from the website of the Audit Commission, while paper copies are available at its Office during office hours.