One of the most vital activities of
a Banks Finance Department is the co-ordination of the Bank’s Statutory Audit
exercise.
The activity of appointment of Statutory
Central Auditors (SCAs) for Indian Public Sector Banks begun once the half-year
activity is over.
The norms on appointment of Statutory
Central Auditors (SCAs) for the Financial Year 2013.2014 stated that the
selection of SCAs will be done by the Selection Committee constituted by Government
of India in coordination with Reserve Bank of India.
The constituted Selection Committee will forward the list of eligible audit firms
and the final call would be taken by Reserve Bank of India, based on the
following guidelines:-
After receipt of the list of eligible
auditors / audit firms, based on the eligibility norms for empanelment of
auditors / audit firms prescribed by RBI from the Office of the Comptroller and
Auditor General of India (C&AG), verification of eligibility of audit firms
by RBI with respect to their bank audit experience available with RBI will be
done by RBI.
List of eligible firms after excluding the
firms which are to be continued, rested and denied audit during the relevant
year will be prepared by RBI and forwarded to Government of India for selection
by the Selection Committee.
After selection, Government of India will
advise bank-wise names of the selected firms to the respective banks. As per
the statutory requirement, banks, in turn, are required to forward the names of
the selected SCAS to RBI for its prior approval before their actual
appointment.
In line with the sweeping winds blowing
across our country, a new policy has been announced for appointment of SCAs in
Indian Public Sector Banks.
As per the revised process, Public Sector
Banks (PSBs) have been granted autonomy on the issue of selection and
appointment of Statutory Central Auditors (SCAs).
The work of selection and appointment of
SCAs henceforth, has been delegated to individual PSBs for the year 2014-15
onwards.
In the near future, Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) will provide the selection criteria for selecting SCAs to PSBs.
The office of Comptroller & Auditor General
(C&AG) will provide the list of eligible auditors available with them and
PSBs can make selection out of the list with the prior approval of RBI.
The efficiency of the new guidelines will
be judged in a couple of years.
