DECREE

DETAILING AND GUIDING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A NUMBER OF ARTICLES OF THE ACCOUNTING LAW, APPLICABLE TO THE STATE ACCOUNTING DOMAIN

THE GOVERNMENT

Pursuant to the December 25, 2001 Law on Organization of the Government;
Pursuant to the June 17, 2003 Accounting Law;
Pursuant to the December 16, 2002 Law on the State Budget;
At the proposal of the Finance Minister,

DECREES:

Article 1.- Scope of regulation

This Decree details and guides the implementation of a number of articles of the Accounting Law applicable to the subjects defined in Article 2 of this Decree (hereinafter called the State accounting domain for short).

Article 2.- Subjects of application

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1. State agencies, non-business units and organizations using the State budget, including:

a/ Agencies and organizations tasked with State budget revenues and expenditures at all levels;

b/ The National Assembly Office;

c/ The State President's Office;

d/ The Government Office;

e/ People's courts at all levels;

f/ People's procuracies at all levels;

g/ People's Armed Force units, including military courts and military procuracies;

h/ Units managing the State's reserve funds, reserve funds of branches or levels, other financial funds of the State;

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j/ State budget-using political organizations, socio-political organizations, socio-politico-professional organizations, social organizations, socio-professional organizations;

k/ Non-business units partly or wholly provided with the State budget;

l/ Organizations managing the national assets;

m/ Managing boards of State budget-funded investment projects;

n/ Associations, unions of associations, confederations and other organizations enjoying partial funding supports from the State budget.

2. Non-business units and organizations not using the State budget, including:

a/ Non-business units that self-balance their revenues and expenditures;

b/ Non-public non-business units;

c/ Non-governmental organizations;

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e/ Social organizations, socio-professional organizations with own revenues and expenditures;

f/ Other organizations not using the State budget.

3. Accountants and other persons involved in accounting in the State accounting domain.

Article 3.- Accounting objects in State budget revenue and expenditure activities

Pursuant to Clause 1, Article 9 of the Accounting Law, the accounting objects in State budget revenue and expenditure activities are defined as follows:

1. Cash and cash equivalents;

2. Funding sources, funds;

3. Payments made inside and outside accounting units;

4. Revenues and expenditures of the State budgets at all levels;

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6. Financial investments, State credits;

7. Debts and handled debts of the State;

8. National assets;

9. Other assets related to accounting units.

Article 4.- Accounting objects in administrative, non-business activities, activities of State budget-using units and organizations

Pursuant to Clause 1, Article 9 of the Accounting Law, the accounting objects in administrative, non-business activities, activities of State budget-using units and organizations are prescribed as follows:

1. Cash and cash equivalents;

2. Supplies and fixed assets;

3. Funding sources, funds;

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5. Revenues, expenditures and handled differences of operational revenues and expenditures;

6. Financial investments, State credits;

7. Other assets related to accounting units.

Article 5.- Accounting objects in activities of units and organizations not using the State budget

Pursuant to Clause 2, Article 9 of the Accounting Law, the accounting objects in activities of units and organizations not using the State budget are prescribed as follows:

1. Cash and cash equivalents;

2. Supplies and fixed assets;

3. Funding sources, funds;

4. Payments made inside and outside accounting units;

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6. Other assets related to accounting units.

Article 6.- Currencies used in the accounting of arising foreign-currency revenues and expenditures

Pursuant to Clause 1, Article 11 of the Accounting Law, currencies for arising revenues and expenditures are prescribed as follows:

1. State budget collection and spending operations in foreign currencies must be recorded in the original currencies, which must be converted into Vietnam dong at the exchange rates set by the Finance Ministry at the time such operations arise.

2. State budget-using State agencies, non-business units and organizations, when receiving fundings in foreign currencies, must record them in the original currencies and convert them into Vietnam dong at the exchange rates set by the Finance Ministry at the time such operations arise.

3. State budget-using State agencies, non-business units and organizations, when conducting transactions for which payments are made in foreign currencies, except for the cases prescribed in Clause 2 of this Article, must record such payments in the original currencies and in Vietnam dong at the actually applied exchange rates or at the exchange rates announced by Vietnam State Bank at the time such operations arise.

4. Overseas representation missions of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and units and organizations in the State accounting domain, when having economic and financial operations or State budget revenues and expenditures in foreign currencies, may select a foreign currency for making book entries; financial statements and budget settlement reports to be sent back to Vietnam must be made according to the provisions of Article 29 of this Decree.

Article 7.- Accounting period

Pursuant to Point a, Clause 1, Article 13 of the Accounting Law, the accounting periods of accounting units with unique characteristics are prescribed as follows:

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Article 8.- Responsibilities for managing, using and supplying accounting information and documents

Pursuant to Article 16 of the Accounting Law, the responsibilities for managing, using and supplying accounting information and documents are prescribed as follows:

1. Accounting units must formulate regulations on management, use and preservation of accounting documents, clearly defining the responsibilities and rights of each accounting section and each accountant; accounting units must ensure adequate material foundations and means for managing and preserving accounting documents.

2. Accounting units shall have to supply accounting information and documents to the State agencies with competence to perform the inspecting, examining, investigating and/or auditing functions as prescribed by law. The agencies supplied with accounting documents shall have to upkeep and preserve accounting documents in the period of using them and to return fully and on time the used accounting documents.

3. The supply of information and documents to the subjects prescribed in Clause 2 of this Article shall be decided by the accounting units' representatives at law according to law provisions. The exploitation and use of accounting documents must be consented in writing by the accounting units' representatives at law or their authorized persons.

Article 9.- Forms of accounting vouchers

Pursuant to Clause 2, Article 19 of the Accounting Law, the accounting voucher forms are prescribed as follows:

1. Accounting voucher forms include compulsory accounting voucher forms and guiding accounting voucher forms.

a/ Compulsory accounting voucher forms are special voucher forms of money value, including checks, money receipts, fee and charge collection tickets, bonds, bills, Government bonds, sale invoices of all types and other compulsory voucher forms. Competent State agencies shall prescribe the contents and structures of compulsory accounting voucher forms for accounting units to strictly comply with the forms, contents and methods of inscribing the indicators and for uniform application by accounting units or each specific accounting unit.

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2. Compulsory accounting voucher forms shall be printed and distributed by the Finance Ministry or by the units authorized by the Finance Ministry. The units authorized to print and distribute compulsory accounting vouchers must print them according to the prescribed forms and in the right quantities of each type of voucher they are permitted to print and must strictly observe the Finance Ministry's regulations on management of prints.

3. The Finance Ministry shall prescribe the list and forms of compulsory accounting vouchers and the list and forms of guiding accounting vouchers; the printing and distribution of accounting voucher forms in each State accounting domain.

Article 10.- Electronic vouchers

Pursuant to Clause 2, Article 18 of the Accounting Law, the contents of electronic vouchers are prescribed as follows:

1. Electronic vouchers must fully contain the contents prescribed for accounting vouchers and must be encrypted to ensure the safety of electronic data in the course of information processing, transmission and archival.

2. Electronic vouchers used in accounting shall be stored in information-carrying articles such as magnetic tapes, magnetic discs and assorted payment cards.

3. For electronic vouchers, confidentiality and preservation of data and information must be ensured in the course of use and storage; managing and examining measures must be taken to prevent various forms of abusing, exploiting, accessing, copying, hacking or using electronic vouchers at variance with regulations. Electronic vouchers, when being preserved, shall be managed like accounting documents in their original forms in which they were created, transmitted or received and with adequate equipment appropriate for their use when necessary.

Article 11.- Conditions on the use of electronic vouchers

Pursuant to Clause 2, Article 18 of the Accounting Law, the conditions on the use of electronic vouchers are prescribed as follows:

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a/ Having the places, information transmission lines, communication networks and information transmitters meeting the requirements of exploiting, controlling, processing, using, preserving and archiving electronic vouchers;

b/ Having staff who have adequate qualifications and capabilities compatible with the technical requirements in order to make and use electronic vouchers according to the accounting and payment processes.

c/ Complying with the provisions of Clause 2 of this Article.

2. Organizations and individuals that use electronic vouchers and conduct electronic payment transactions must satisfy the following conditions:

a/ Their representatives at law or their authorized persons have electronic signatures;

b/ Establishing the modes of delivery and receipt of electronic vouchers and technical characteristics of information-carrying articles;

c/ Making commitments that operations are performed in compatibility with electronic vouchers made by them according to regulations.

Article 12.- Validity of electronic vouchers

Pursuant to Clause 2, Article 18 of the Accounting Law, the validity of accounting documents is prescribed as follows:

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2. Once an electronic voucher has been used for conducting an economic or financial operation and converted into a paper document, such paper voucher shall be only valid for archival for making entries in accounting books, monitoring and examination but not valid for transaction and payment.

3. The conversion of paper vouchers into electronic ones or vice versa shall comply with the regulations on making, use, control, processing, preservation and archival of electronic vouchers and paper vouchers.

Article 13.- Translation of accounting vouchers into Vietnamese

Pursuant to Article 19 of the Accounting Law, the scripts used on accounting vouchers are prescribed as follows:

1. For accounting vouchers that are made outside the Vietnamese territory and in foreign languages, if they are used for making entries in accounting books in Vietnam, they must be translated into Vietnamese.

2. Vouchers that rarely arise must be wholly translated. Documents that frequently arise must have their major contents translated according to the regulations of the Finance Ministry.

3. The Vietnamese translations of vouchers must be enclosed with their foreign-language originals.

Article 14.- Electronic signatures on electronic vouchers

Pursuant to Clause 4, Article 20 of the Accounting Law, electronic signatures are prescribed as follows:

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2. Electronic signatures must be encrypted in cipher keys. An electronic signature is established for each individual to determine the rights and responsibilities of the establisher and related persons responsible for the safety and accuracy of the electronic signature. Electronic signatures on electronic vouchers are as valid as signatures handwritten on paper vouchers.

3. In case of change of technical cipher staff, the secret codes', electronic signatures and passwords must be changed and notified to the parties involved in electronic transactions.

4. The persons assigned to manage and use secret codes, electronic signatures and passwords must ensure their confidentiality and be answerable before law if disclosing them and causing damage to the assets of their units and the parties involved in transactions.

Article 15.- Sale invoices

Pursuant to Clause 1 and Clause 4 of Article 21 of the Accounting Law, the cases of goods sale and the sales levels are prescribed as follows:

1. When organizations that use sale invoices retail goods or provide services at a time at the sales level below the level prescribed by the Finance Ministry, they are not required to make sale invoices; but if the goods purchasers request the invoices, the goods sellers must make invoices and hand them strictly according to regulations. If the goods retailed or services provided at a time are valued at below the prescribed level, though invoices are not compulsorily made, the lists of retailed goods or services must be made or sale invoices may be made according to regulations for use as accounting vouchers. In cases where the lists of retailed goods or services are made, at the end of each day, the invoices for goods sold in the day shall be made on the basis of the synthesized data of such lists.

2. When purchasing products or goods or being provided with services, organizations or individuals may request the sellers or service providers to make sale invoices and hand their copies No. 2 to them for use and archival according to regulations, and, shall, at the same time, have to check the indicators recorded on the invoices and refuse to receive the invoices with wrongly recorded indicators or recorded with the values different from those recorded on the copies kept by the sellers.

3. Organizations that print sale invoices by themselves must get prior written approvals of the Finance Ministry. They must sign invoice-printing contracts with the printing organizations, clearly stating the quantities, codes and serial numbers of invoices. After each time of printing invoices or terminating the printing contracts, the printing contracts must be liquidated.

4. Accounting units must use sale invoices strictly according to regulations; must not purchase, sell, swap, give away invoices or use invoices of other organizations or individuals; must not use invoices for making declarations to evade taxes; must open monitoring books, have management rules and means for preserving and archiving invoices strictly according to law provisions; must not let invoices be damaged or lost. Any damaged or lost invoices must be notified to the tax agencies of the same level.

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Pursuant to Point d, Clause 3, Article 21 of the Accounting Law, stamps, tickets and money receipts are prescribed as follows:

1. Accounting units, when collecting charges, fees or fines, must stick stamps, hand tickets or money receipts to the payers. Stamps, tickets and money receipts must be managed like cash.

2. Accounting units, when remitting charges, fees or fines, must request the money collectors to stick stamps, hand tickets or make and hand money receipts to them.

Article 17.- Arrangement and preservation of accounting vouchers

Pursuant to Clause 2, Article 22 of the Accounting Law, the arrangement and preservation of accounting vouchers are prescribed as follows:

1. Accounting documents, after being used for making entries in accounting books, must be classified according to their economic contents, arranged in the temporal order and bound in volumes. The cover of each volume must be inscribed with: The title of the volume, the month and year of documents and the quantity of documents in the document volume. Document volumes shall be preserved at the accounting sections for 12 months, as from the date ending the annual accounting period, then be put into archival under the provisions of this Decree.

2. Unused accounting voucher forms must be carefully preserved without damage or loss. Unused accounting vouchers related to State budget revenues or expenditures must be managed according to the Finance Ministry's regulations on management of prints. Accounting vouchers which are as valuable as money must be managed like money during their use validity period.

3. The arrangement and preservation of electronic vouchers shall comply with the provisions of Clause 3, Article 10 of this Decree.

Article 18.- Copied accounting vouchers

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1. Copied accounting vouchers must be those copied from their originals and affixed thereon with the certifying signatures and seals of the representatives at law of the accounting units that archive their originals or State agencies competent to decide on the temporary seizure or confiscation of accounting documents.

2. Copied accounting vouchers shall be accepted only in the following cases:

a/ Accounting units that have projects on foreign loans or aid and must, as committed, submit the original documents to the foreign financiers. In this case, the copied documents must be affixed with the certifying signatures and seals of the representatives at law of the financiers or accounting units.

b/ Accounting units that have their original accounting vouchers be temporarily seized or confiscated by competent State agencies. In this case, the copied vouchers must be affixed with the certifying signatures and seals of the representatives of the State agencies competent to decide on the temporary seizure or confiscation of accounting documents as prescribed in Article 33 of this Decree.

c/ Accounting vouchers which are lost or destroyed due to objective causes such as natural calamities or fires. In this case, the accounting units must come to the units that purchased or sold goods and/or services and other related units to copy the lost documents. Such copied accounting vouchers must be affixed with the certifying signatures and seals of the representatives at law of the units that purchased or sold goods and/or services and other related accounting units.

d/ Other cases as prescribed by law.

Article 19.- Making of entries in computerized accounting books

Pursuant to Clause 7, Article 27 of the Accounting Law, the making of entries in computerized accounting books is prescribed as follows:

1. Where accounting units make entries in computerized accounting books, the accounting software they select must satisfy the prescribed standards and conditions and be able to compare, synthesize accounting figures and make financial statements.

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Article 20.- Time for making financial statements

Pursuant to Clause 2 of Article 29 and Clause 1 of Article 30 of the Accounting Law, the time for making financial statements is defined as follows:

1. The financial statements of accounting units engaged in State budget revenue and expenditure activities shall be made at the end of the monthly, quarterly and annual accounting periods.

2. The financial statements of administrative or non-business accounting units or organizations using the State budget shall be made at the end of the quarterly and annual accounting periods.

3. The financial statements of units or organizations not using the State budget shall be made at the end of the annual accounting periods.

4. The accounting units which are divided, merged or terminate operation must make financial statements as of the time the division, merger or operation termination is decided.

Article 21.- Time for making budget settlement reports

Pursuant to Clause 1 of Article 30 of the Accounting Law, the time for making budget settlement reports is prescribed as follows:

1. The budget settlement reports of accounting units engaged in State budget revenue and expenditure activities shall be the revised financial statements of the annual accounting periods.

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3. The financial statements of non-business units or organizations not using the State budget shall be the financial statements of the annual accounting periods, made according to the Finance Ministry's regulations.

Article 22.- Responsibilities for making and submitting settlement reports

Pursuant to Clause 2 of Article 30 of the Accounting Law, the responsibilities for making and submitting financial statements and budget settlement reports are prescribed as follows:

1. Accounting units engaged in State budget revenue and expenditure activities at the grassroots levels must make and submit monthly, quarterly and annual financial statements and annual budget settlement reports to the superior State budget collecting and spending agencies and competent State agencies.

2. For State budget-using State agencies, non-business units and organizations that organize different budget estimation levels, the subordinate budget estimation units must make and submit quarterly, and annual financial statements and annual budget settlement reports to the superior budget estimation units.

Article 23.- Contents and methods of presentation of financial statements

Pursuant to Clause 3 of Article 30 of the Accounting Law, the contents and methods of presentation of financial statements are prescribed as follows:

The contents and methods of presentation of indicators in financial statements must be suitable to the contents and methods of presentation of indicators in the budget estimates of the fiscal year and in the financial statements of the previous year's accounting period. Where financial statements are made with contents and by methods of presentation different from the indicators in the budget estimates or different from the financial statements of the previous year's accounting period, such must be explained in the explanation part of the financial statements.

Article 24.- Deadlines for submission of financial statements

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1. The deadline for submission of monthly financial statements of accounting units engaged in State budget revenue and expenditure activities to their superior accounting units and the finance agencies of the same level is the 15th day as from the end of the month.

2. Deadlines for submission of quarterly financial statements:

a/ The quarterly financial statements of accounting units engaged in State budget revenue and expenditure activities must be submitted to the superior accounting units and the finance agencies of the same level on the 25th day as from the end of the quarter at the latest;

b/ The quarterly financial statements of State budget-funded State agencies, non-business units or organizations must be submitted to the superior accounting units and the finance agencies of the same level on the 25th day as from the end of the quarter at the latest.

3. The deadline for submission of annual financial statements of accounting units engaged in State budget revenue and expenditure activities to the superior accounting units and the finance agencies of the same level is the 45th day as from the end of the year.

Article 25.- Deadlines for submission and places of receipt of annual budget settlement reports

Pursuant to Clause 2 of Article 31 of the Accounting Law, the deadlines for submission and places of receipt of budget settlement reports are prescribed as follows:

1. The annual budget settlement reports of all levels shall be submitted to the superior accounting units and the finance agencies of the same level not later than the end of October 1st of the subsequent year, for the provincial budgets. For district and commune budgets, the deadlines shall be set by the provincial-level People's Committees but must ensure the deadlines for approval of settlements of all budgetary levels.

2. The annual budget settlement reports of grade-I budget estimation units of the central budget shall be submitted to the superior agencies and the finance agencies of the same level not later than the end of October 1st of the subsequent year.

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The deadlines for submission of annual budget settlement reports of grade-I budget estimation units using local budgets shall be set by the provincial-level People's Committees.

3. The annual settlement reports of units or organizations not using the State budget must be submitted to the superior accounting units (if any) and the finance agencies of the same level not later than the 45th day as from the end of the year.

Article 26.- General annual budget settlement reports

Pursuant to Clause 2 of Article 30 of the Accounting Law, general annual budget settlement reports are prescribed as follows:

1. The superior accounting units engaged in State budget revenue and expenditure activities must, apart from making their annual budget settlement reports, also make general annual budget settlement reports on the basis of the general annual budget settlement reports of their attached accounting units.

2. The superior accounting units of State budget-using State agencies, non-business units or organizations must, apart from making their annual budget settlement reports, also make general annual budget settlement reports on the basis of the annual budget settlement reports of their attached accounting units.

Article 27.- Responsibilities for verifying and approving budget settlement reports

Pursuant to Article 31 of the Accounting Law, the superior accounting units’ responsibilities for evaluating and approving budget settlement reports are prescribed as follows:

1. The superior accounting units engaged in State budget revenue and expenditure activities must consider and verify the annual budget settlement reports of their subordinate accounting units and notify the consideration and approval results to their subordinate accounting units.

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Article 28.- Abbreviated and rounded monetary units when making or publicizing financial statements

Pursuant to Article 11 and Article 30 of the Accounting Law, the abbreviated or rounded monetary units, when making or publicizing financial statements, are prescribed as follows:

1. When making general budget settlement reports on the basis of annual settlement reports of their attached accounting units, the superior accounting units may use the abbreviated monetary unit of the thousand of VND if there are figures consisting of over 9 numerals in the reports or the abbreviated monetary unit of the million of VND if there are figures consisting of over 12 numerals or the abbreviated monetary unit of the billion of VND if there are figures consisting of over 15 numerals.

2. When publicizing their financial statements, accounting units may use the abbreviated monetary units prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article.

3. When using the abbreviated monetary units, accounting units may round figures by either increasing one (1) more unit if the numeral that comes after the abbreviated monetary unit numeral is 5 or higher or dropping such numeral if it is smaller than 5.

Article 29.- Conversion of financial statements of overseas units and organizations that fall in the State accounting domain

Pursuant to Article 29, Article 30 and Article 31 of the Accounting Law, the case where overseas accounting units send their financial statements back to Vietnam is prescribed as follows:

When making financial statements and budget settlement reports for sending back to Vietnam, overseas representation missions of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and units and organizations in the State accounting domain must use foreign currencies for making entries in accounting books and at the same time convert them into Vietnam dong according to the converting method and at the exchange rate prescribed by the Finance Ministry and must translate them into Vietnamese.

Article 30.- Time limits for publicization of financial statements

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1. Accounting units engaged in State budget revenue and expenditure activities must publicize their annual financial statements within 30 days as from the date their annual financial statements are approved by competent State agencies.

2. State budget-using non-business units and organizations must publicize their financial statements within 30 days as from the date their annual financial statements are approved by their superior accounting units or competent State agencies.

3. Non-business units and organizations not using the State budget must publicize their annual financial statements within 30 days as from the deadline for submission of annual financial statements to their superior accounting units and the finance agencies of the same level.

Article 31.- Agencies competent to decide on accounting examination

Pursuant to Article 35 of the Accounting Law, the agencies competent to decide on accounting examination are prescribed as follows:

1. The Finance Ministry shall decide on the accounting examination of accounting units of the ministries, ministerial-level agencies, Government-attached agencies or provincial-level People's Committees as well as other central-level accounting units.

2. The ministries, ministerial-level agencies, Government-attached agencies and other central agencies shall, within the scope of their respective tasks and powers, decide on the accounting examination of accounting units in the domains assigned to them for management.

3. The People's Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities shall, within the scope of their respective tasks and powers, decide on the accounting examination of accounting units in the localities under their management.

4. The superior accounting units shall decide on the accounting examination of their attached accounting units.

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Pursuant to Article 35 of the Accounting Law, the agencies competent to conduct accounting examination are prescribed as follows:

1. The agencies competent to decide on the accounting examination defined in Article 31 of this Decree shall also have competence to conduct accounting examination.

2. The State inspectorate, the finance inspectorate, the State Audit and tax agencies shall be entitled to conduct accounting examination while performing the tasks of examining, inspecting and auditing accounting units.

Article 33.- Sealing, temporary seizure and confiscation of accounting documents

Pursuant to Clause 3 of Article 22 and Clause 2 of Article 40 of the Accounting Law, the sealing, temporary seizure and confiscation of accounting documents are prescribed as follows:

1. When competent State agencies decide to seal up accounting documents according to law provisions, the accounting units and the representatives of the competent State agencies performing the task of sealing accounting documents must make accounting document-sealing records. Such a record must clearly state the reasons, quantity, types and accounting periods of the sealed accounting documents. The accounting units' representatives at law and the representatives of the State agencies competent to seal accounting documents must sign and affix their stamps on the accounting document-sealing records.

2. Where competent State agencies temporarily seize or confiscate accounting documents, the accounting units and the representatives of the competent State agencies performing the task of temporarily seizing or confiscating accounting documents must make accounting document delivery and receipt records. Such a record must clearly state the reasons, types of documents, quantity of documents of each type, the present conditions of temporarily seized or confiscated documents of each type; for temporarily seized documents, the duration of use and time of return of accounting documents must be clearly stated. The accounting units' representatives at law and the representatives of the State agencies competent to temporarily seize or confiscate accounting documents must sign and affix their stamps on the accounting document delivery and receipt records, and at the same time make copies of the temporarily seized or confiscated accounting documents, then the representatives of the State agencies competent to temporarily seize or confiscate accounting documents sign and affix their stamps on the copied accounting documents. For computerized accounting documents, accounting books and financial statements that have not yet been printed out on paper, the competent State agencies shall request the accounting units to print them out on paper and carry out the procedures prescribed for accounting documents before temporarily seize or confiscate them.

Article 34.- Types of accounting documents to be archived

Pursuant to Article 40 of the Accounting Law, the types of accounting documents to be archived are prescribed as follows:

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2. Detailed accounting books, general accounting books.

3. Financial statements, management accounting statements.

4. Other accounting-related documents other than the documents specified in Clause 1, Clause 2 and Clause 3 of this Article, including contracts of all types, documents related to the receipt and use of budgets, capital and funds; documents related to the tax obligations towards the State; documents related to the inventory and valuation of assets, documents related to examination, inspection and audit; documents related to the division, splitting, merger and operation termination; records on the destruction of accounting documents and other documents related to accounting.

Article 35.- Preservation and archival of accounting documents

Pursuant to Article 40 of the Accounting Law, the preservation and archival of accounting documents are prescribed as follows:

1. Accounting units must fully and safely preserve their accounting documents in the process of using them. Accountants shall have to preserve their accounting documents in the course of using them.

2. The archived accounting documents must be originals as prescribed by law for each type of accounting document. Where accounting documents are temporarily seized, confiscated, lost or destroyed, there must be records thereon enclosed with the copies of such documents. For accounting documents which have only one original each but need to be archived at two places, either of these two places may archive the copies of such documents as prescribed in Article 18 of this Decree.

3. The accounting units' representatives at law must bear responsibility for organizing the preservation and archival of accounting documents to ensure their safety, completeness and legality.

4. Accounting documents must be archived in a full and systematic manner, be classified and arranged in separate dossier sets in the temporal order and according to the annual accounting periods.

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Pursuant to Article 40 of the Accounting Law, the places of archival of accounting documents are prescribed as follows:

1. Accounting documents of an accounting unit shall be kept at the archival store of such unit. The accounting document archival store must be situated close to the unit's head office, have adequate preserving equipment and conditions ensuring safety in the course of preservation according to law provisions.

2. Where an accounting unit does not organize an archival section or a store at the unit, it must hire an organization or agency to archive its accounting documents under an archival contract made according to law provisions.

3. Accounting documents of the annual accounting periods, which are still in the archival duration and belong to the divided, split or merged accounting units, must be archived at the newly established units. Where the accounting documents of the divided, split or merged accounting units cannot be divided to the new units, they shall be archived at the divided or split accounting units or at the places to be decided by the agencies competent to decide on division or splitting.

4. Accounting documents of the units that terminate operation, including accounting documents of the annual accounting period, which are still in the archival duration and accounting documents related to the operation termination, shall be archived at the places to be decided by the agencies competent to decide on operation termination.

5. Security and defense-related accounting documents and permanently archived documents must be archived according to law provisions.

Article 37.- Accounting documents to be archived for at least 5 years

Pursuant to Article 40 of the Accounting Law, accounting documents to be archived for at least 5 years include:

1. Accounting documents used for routine management and administration of the accounting units, which are not used directly for making entries in accounting books and for making financial statements, shall be archived for at least 5 years, counting from the end of the annual accounting period, such as receipts, expenditure bills, warehousing bills, ex-warehousing bills not filed in the sets of vouchers kept at the accounting sections.

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Article 38.- Accounting documents to be archived for at least 10 years

Pursuant to Article 40 of the Accounting Law, accounting documents to be archived for at least 10 years include:

1. Accounting documents used directly for making entries in accounting books and for making financial statements, detailed lists, general detailed lists, detailed accounting books, general accounting books, monthly, quarterly and annual financial statements, settlement reports, records on destruction of archived accounting documents and other documents related to the making of entries in accounting books and the making of financial statements.

2. Accounting documents related to the liquidation of fixed assets.

3. The project management boards' accounting documents and reports on the settlement of investment capital of the completed projects.

4. Accounting documents related to the establishment, separation, splitting, merger and operation termination of accounting units.

5. For other accounting documents of accounting units, which are used in a number of cases where it is prescribed by law that they must be archived for over 10 years, they must be archived according to such law provisions.

6. Audit documents and dossiers of the State Audit.

Article 39.- Accounting documents to be permanently archived

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1. Reports on the general settlement of annual State budgets, already approved by the National Assembly.

2. Dossiers and reports on settlement of investment capital for capital construction of group-A projects.

3. Other accounting documents of historical value and important economic, security or defense significance.

The identification of other accounting documents to be permanently archived shall be decided by the accounting units' representatives at law, branches or localities on the basis of such documents' historical value and important economic, security or defense significance. The duration of permanent archival must be at least 10 years and last till the accounting documents naturally decay or are destroyed under decisions of the accounting units' representatives at law.

Article 40.- Archival of electronic vouchers

Pursuant to Article 18 and Article 40 of the Accounting Law, the archival of electronic vouchers is prescribed as follows:

1. Electronic vouchers being magnetic tapes, magnetic discs or payment cards must be arranged in the temporal order and preserved in proper technical conditions against their deterioration as well as illegal access from outside.

2. Before being put into archives, electronic vouchers must be printed out on paper for archival according to the regulations on archival of accounting documents. Where the master copies of electronic vouchers are archived on special devices, appropriate information-reading devices must also be archived to enable the exploitation thereof when necessary.

3. The time, duration and places of archival and places of destruction of electronic vouchers shall comply with the provisions of Articles 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42 and 43 of this Decree.

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Pursuant to Article 40 of the Accounting Law, the time for counting the accounting document archival duration is prescribed as follows:

1. The time for counting the duration of archival of accounting documents prescribed in Article 37, Clause 1, Clause 2 and Clause 5 of Article 38 of this Decree shall be the date that ends the annul accounting period.

2. The time for counting the duration of archival of accounting documents prescribed in Clause 3 of Article 38 of this Decree shall be the date the reports on the settlement of investment capital of the completed projects are approved.

3. The time for counting the duration of archival of accounting documents prescribed in Clause 4 and audit documents and dossiers prescribed in Clause 6, Article 38 of this Decree shall be the time of completion of the work.

Article 42.- Destruction of accounting documents

Pursuant to Article 40 of the Accounting Law, the destruction of accounting documents is prescribed as follows:

1. Accounting documents with expired archival duration according to regulations may be destroyed under decisions of the representatives at law of the accounting units, unless otherwise designated by competent State agencies.

2. Accounting documents archived at an accounting unit shall be destroyed by such accounting unit.

3. Depending on the practical conditions of each unit, accounting documents shall be destroyed in the form selected by the unit. For accounting documents of a classified type, they shall be burnt, cut or shredded mechanically or manually, ensuring that information and figures on the destroyed accounting documents will not be reused.

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Pursuant to Article 40 of the Accounting Law, the procedures for destruction of accounting documents are prescribed as follows:

1. The representatives at law of the accounting units shall decide to set up "councils for destruction of accounting documents with expired archival duration," Such a council shall be composed of a leader of the accounting unit, the chief accountant and a representative of the archival section.

2. The councils for destruction of accounting documents must inventory, evaluate and classify accounting documents, and make lists of to be-destroyed accounting documents and the records on the destruction of accounting documents with expired archival duration.

3. The records on the destruction of accounting documents with expired archival duration must be made immediately after the accounting documents are destroyed, clearly stating the types of destroyed accounting documents, the archival duration of each type of accounting documents, the destruction form, the conclusions and signatures of the members of the destruction councils.

Article 44.- Arrangement of accountants

Pursuant to Clause 1, Article 48 of the Accounting Law, the arrangement of accountants is prescribed as follows:

Accounting units having no big accounting work volumes may each arrange a full-time accountant or a part-time accountant who concurrently performs other tasks not banned by the accounting legislation. At the accounting units where chief accountants must be arranged, the persons arranged to work as full-time accountants or part-time accountants must satisfy all criteria and conditions and be arranged to work as chief accountants or persons in charge of accounting according to the provisions of Article 45 and Article 47 of this Decree.

Article 45.- Arrangement and removal of chief accountants

Pursuant to Clause 2, Article 48 of the Accounting Law, the arrangement and removal of chief accountants are prescribed as follows:

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2. The arrangement and removal of chief accountants of the accounting units stated in Clause 1, Article 2 of this Decree and the non-business units that self-balance their revenues and expenditures and are set up by State agencies shall be proposed by the accounting units' representatives at law and decided by the authorities competent to appoint the accounting units' representatives at law after obtaining the written contents of the chief accountants of the immediate superior accounting units. For other accounting units, their representatives at law shall make such decisions.

3. Where the post of chief accountant is vacant because the former chief account is promoted to a new position, is transferred to another job or is disciplined, the competent authorities defined in Clause 2 of this Article must immediately arrange a new chief accountant.

Article 46.- Criteria and conditions for chief accountants

Pursuant to Article 53 of the Accounting Law, the professional criteria and conditions for chief accountants are prescribed as follows:

1. Chief accountants of the accounting units engaged in State budget revenue and expenditure activities must have professional accounting qualifications and skills of university or higher degree for central-level and provincial-level units; or have professional accounting qualifications and skills of intermediate or higher degree for district-level and commune-level accounting units.

2. Chief accountants at non-business units and organizations using the State budget and organizations not using the State budget at the central and provincial levels must have professional accounting qualifications and skills of university or higher degree. Chief accountants at the accounting units at other levels must have professional accounting qualifications and skills of intermediate or higher degree.

3. For persons with accounting qualifications and professional skills of university or higher degree, they must have actually been engaged in accountancy for at least 2 years; for persons with professional accounting qualifications and skills of intermediate or higher degree, they must have actually been engaged in accountancy for at least 3 years, for all levels and units.

4. Persons arranged to work as chief accountants must fully satisfy the following conditions:

a/ They must not fall into the subjects banned from working as accountants as prescribed in Article 51 of the Accounting Law;

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Article 47.- Persons in charge of accounting

Pursuant to Clause 2, Article 48 of the Accounting Law, persons in charge of accounting are prescribed as follows:

Accounting units that have no persons who fully satisfy the prescribed criteria and conditions for being appointed as chief accountants shall be allowed to appoint persons in charge of accounting. For units engaged in State budget revenue and expenditure activities, State budget-using non-business units and organizations, they may appoint persons in charge of accounting for no more than one financial year, after that they must arrange persons to work as chief accountants according to regulations.

Article 48.- Organization of the accounting apparatuses at all levels

Pursuant to Clause 3 of Article 48 of the Accounting Law, the organization of the accounting apparatuses at all levels is prescribed as follows:

1. Accounting units engaged in State budget revenue and expenditure activities may organize their accounting apparatuses according to the budget levels prescribed by the State Budget Law.

2. State budget-using non-business units and organizations, reserve units of the State and other financial funds of the State shall organize their accounting apparatuses according to the budget estimation levels as follows:

a/ Grade-I accounting units;

b/ Grade-II accounting units;

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3. Where grade-III accounting units need to organize attached accounting sections, the organization of such attached accounting sections shall be decided by the representatives at law of the superior accounting units of the grade-III accounting units.

Article 49.- Hire of accountants, hire of chief accountants

Pursuant to Clause 1 of Article 56 of the Accounting Law, the hire of accountants and/or chief accountants is prescribed as follows:

1. Non-business units, organizations using the State budget may hire accounting service-providing enterprises or persons with accounting service business registration certificates to work as accountants or chief accountants. State budget-using non-business units may hire accountants or chief accountants, which shall be decided by the units' representatives at law.

2. Persons who are hired to work as accountants or chief accountants must satisfy the professional criteria prescribed in Articles 55, 56 and 57 of the Accounting Law and Article 46 of this Decree.

3. Where accounting units hire chief accountants, such chief accountants must fully meet the following conditions:

a/ Having the accountancy practice certificates as prescribed in Article 57 of the Accounting Law, except for the cases where the hired chief accountants perform the work of the accounting service-providing enterprises in accordance with the provisions of Article 53 of the Accounting Law;

b/ Having the chief accountant-training certificates as prescribed by the Finance Ministry;

c/ Having the accounting service business registration certificates or the registration certificates for practicing accountancy in the accounting service-providing enterprises.

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Article 50.- Implementation effect

1. This Decree takes effect 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette.

2. All previous regulations on accounting in the State accounting domain, which are contrary to this Decree, shall cease to be effective as from the date this Decree comes into force.

Article 51.- Organization of implementation

1. The Finance Minister shall have to guide and organize the implementation of this Decree.

2. The ministers, the heads of the ministerial-level agencies, the heads of the Government-attached agencies, the chairmen of the People's Councils and the presidents of the People's Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities shall have to organize the implementation of this Decree.

ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT
PRIME MINISTER




Phan Van Khai