China to audit its overseas companies

BEIJING: China has chosen seven audit firms including PwC, BDO and Grant Thornton to examine the overseas assets of major state-owned enterprises (SOEs) following an open tender held last month, media reports said. It is the first time Chinese authorities openly selected independent audit firms to look into the SOEs’ offshore assets.The move came after a former audit official warned that more than 110 SOEs’ overseas assets valued at about 4 trillion yuan ($637 billion) were not audited due to insufficient audit staff.Corruption related to offshore state assets is particularly severe in the merger and acquisition process, said Dong Dasheng, former deputy chief of the National Audit Office. Other audit firms winning the tender include Baker Tilly, Union Power, Da Hua and ShineWing, according to the website of State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, which supervises major SOEs.According to the tender announced last month, the audits will be conducted on SOEs’ overseas assets and on key projects.