Empanelment for Concurrent Audit in Punjab & Sindh Bank

The following criteria should be adopted while selecting a firm for concurrent audit assignments:

• The Chartered Accountants firm should preferably be a partnership firm with at least one FCA partner.
• The Sole Proprietorship Chartered Accountant firms should be discouraged, however, in case proprietor is a FCA and has employed an ex-banker of scale-II & above for conducting concurrent audit, the ACE, on merit of each such case, would consider the application. The auditor has to attend branch/office for at least 14 days in a calendar month. Further, in such cases the FCA would visit the branch personally at least 4 times in a month or as decided by the bank
• The firms should preferably be selected from the RBI panel as per gradation suggested for Branch Statutory Auditor appointment.
• The firms should have qualified Information System Auditor (CISA/DISA) with adequate exposure of more than 1 year in systems audit. IS audit would be conducted in accordance with IS Audit policy of the Bank & as per format provided by the bank, which should form an integral part of concurrent audit
• The firms should have been established for at least 3 years prior to the date of application. The audit firm or any sister / associate concern / network firm should not have been debarred/de-paneled and is not conducting the statutory audit of the Bank or any of its Branches. Preference should be given to the firms where the partners themselves were ex-bankers or the firm has got tie-up with ex-bankers, of scale-II & above, with requisite experience and exposure.
• The present fee for concurrent audit ranges from Rs.12000/- to Rs.20000/-.
• The tenure of the concurrent audit would be initially for one year and would be extended for a further period of TWO years (overall THREE years) after which auditor could be shifted to another business unit subject to satisfactory performance. However, after having conducted concurrent audit for THREE years continuously, the concerned CCA will be given one year break (cooling period), before reappointing them or their associate concern(s).
  • At any point of time, not more than one audit assignment would be awarded to any single firm.
  • An audit assignment that needs to be carried out across the branches / units at different locations would be considered as a single assignment for this purpose. Cooling period of two years would be observed for a firm to become eligible for appointment in the same audit unit purely at the discretion of the Bank and no rights whatsoever accrue to the firm for such appointment
  • The selection of the auditors will be reviewed every year.
• It is to be ensured that:
  • The firm is not in any case disqualified under provision of Sec. 141 of Companies Act, 2013
  • The firm or any of its associate firm(s) have never been de-panelled due to poor performance.
  • That the license of the proprietor / Key Person of the partnership concern have been issued for Full Time practice by The Institute of Chartered Accountants and the proprietor/ Key Person of the partnership firm is not in another Full Time Service.
  • That the firm exists on the given address and the main occupation of the firm is Accountancy.
  • The firm is not doing Statutory Audit of the bank for the year 2018-19 & 2019-20.
  • That in case your firm is doing auditing work/providing any professional Services to any of the customers of the bank, this must be disclosed with relevant details on firms letter head.
• Preference should be given to those firms who have adequate exposure in conducting concurrent audit of the Bank branches of Public Sector / major Private Sector Banks.
• The firms should have necessary office set up within same city or periphery of the allotted branch/office and adequate personnel to ensure proper deployment and timely completion of the assignments.
• In addition to above, the audit firms shall:
  • Execute undertaking of fidelity and secrecy on its letterhead in the format prescribed by the Bank.
  • Not sub-contract the audit work assigned to any outside firm or other persons even though such persons are qualified Chartered Accountants.
  • Furnish a declaration that credit facilities availed by the firm or partners or firms in which they are partners or directors including any facility availed by a third party for which the firm or its partners are guarantor/s have not turned or are existing as non- performing assets as per the prudential norms of RBI. In case the declaration is found incorrect, the assignment would get terminated besides the firm being liable for any action under ICAI / RBI guidelines.
  • Mandatorily sign the Do’s & Don’ts & abide by the Do’s & Don’ts issued by the Bank.
• Since large number of on-line applications is received for limited number of branches identified for concurrent audit, as such, no communication will be sent by the Bank and no correspondence will be entertained in respect of firms, which are not being selected.
• The CCAs who are allotted the AD Branches, they must provide the certificate for checking the SWIFT messages with Finacle
• All New advances/ amendments are to be checked with the TIPS menu in Finacle.
• The monthly report should reach by 10th of next month to the Branch, Zonal Office and Zonal Inspectorates. In addition to that quarterly concurrent audit report should reach the Head Office by 10th after close of the quarter
• The applicant is mandatorily required to submit the followings through speed-post/courier. Please note that scan copies sent through mail are not acceptable & may result into cancellation::
  • Duly signed & stamped PRINT of On-Line application
  • ICAI Constitution Certificate
  • ICAI Membership Certificate
  • CISA/DISA Certificate

• Any other terms and conditions of the assignment would be decided by the Bank on a case-to-case basis

Signature Please put your signatures in signature box while submitting print of online application.