EPFO invites RFP for appointment of CA Firm for FY 2024-25. Last date to apply: 31.03.2025

EPFO invites RFP for appointment of CA Firm for FY 2024-25 for preparation of Annual Financial Statements and automation.

EPFO has invited Request for Proposals (RFP) for appointment of Chartered Accountant Firm for FY 2024-25 as Consultant for Preparation of Annual Financial Statements of Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) New Delhi; and automation of the process.

Eligibility Criteria:

1.The firm should be conducting Statutory Central Audit of Public Sector Banks & Private Sector Banks for the Financial year 2024-25 as per list hosted by RBI on its website.

2. The firm should be in existence for atleast 20 years and should have active membership with ICAI.

3. The Firm should have at least 20 partners/employees in the firm.

4. The firm should have a strong background of IT for audits/services and at least 3 CISA/DISA certified partners /employees.

5. The firm should have an experience of adopting an accounting software for its client and must have ensured seamless migration from a manual accounting system to an automated accounting system across the organisation.

6. The firm must have experience of finalising the annual financial system of its client through such adopted accounting software.

7. The firm’s average turnover should be minimum of Rs 1 Crore for last 3 years.

8. The firm should have drafted accounts manual for atleast one Public sector undertakings/ Autonomous bodies/Government /Ministries/ Government Agencies/Statutory bodies.

9. The firm/its partners should not have been fined/penalized by any regulatory authority like ICAI/NFRA/RBI/SEBI/C&AG for any of its services in last 3 years and no penalty currency period is currently in force.

10. The firm’s previous experience with EPFO as a third party auditor or as accountant or auditor with any of the exempted PF trust is desirable.

Scope of Work:
The appointed Consultant Firm shall be required to :

(i) Assist EPFO in Preparation of Annual Financial Statement of EPFO;

(ii) Act as techno functional expert for framing our functional requirements and work closely with a PMU selected separately for customisation of any subscription based or an open source accounting software for the purpose of migration and adoption of an accounting software for automation of the process of preparation of Annual Financial Statements and budgets and to provide desired MIS reports;

(iii) To ensure the successful on boarding of the software, knowledge transfer, training, and operational needs, while collaborating with technical teams, and providing post-implementation support for continuous improvement

(iv) Assist in reconciliation of suspense accounts and resolution of audit observations raised by C&AG,

(v) Advise EPFO on accounting issues (vi) Preparation of Accounting Manuals

(vii) Assist in conducting trainings on preparation of Annual Financial Statements

(viii) any other incidental work related to Annual Financial Statement of EPFO or issues which have a bearing on the same including any other assignment or work as assigned by FA & CAO.

Tenure of appointment:
Period of engagement of consultant will be 3 years. Tenure will be extendable further on mutually agreed terms subject to approval from competent authority. EPFO may terminate the contract with the Consultant in case its services are not found satisfactory.

Performance Bank Guarantee:
The selected Consultant will furnish a Performance Bank Guarantee (PBG) of Rs 1,00,000/- by nationalized scheduled Banks as performance security towards the contract

Penalty for non-performance:
If the Consulting Agency/firm fails to achieve the Project Timelines for any reason whatsoever, a non-performance penalty of 1% of the agreed fee for the activity may be imposed for each week of delay. Such penalty shall be deducted from any payables to the Consultant or recovered from Performance Guarantee. Total such penalty shall be capped at 10% of the financial bid.

Application Mode:
The RFP document, along with terms and conditions and other relevant documents, has been uploaded on https://gem.gov.in/. The bidders can log on to the website and see these documents.

Applicants are required to upload scanned copies of relevant documents and excel files for Technical and Financial bids as per the terms and formats defined in Section 8 of this RFP document.

More information useful for submitting online bids on the GeM Portal may be obtained at: https://gem.gov.in/.

The successful Consultant will be finalized based on the evaluation criteria and the decision of the EPFO shall be final and the same will be informed accordingly

Key Dates are as under:

Download RFP issued by EPFO for FY 2024-25 Click Here >>

• Penalty u/s 271B for unfilled column 40 in Tax Audit Report Form 3CD deleted by ITAT
• Merely ex-parte rectifying computation without amending assessment order not make it nullity- ITAT
• Once assessee discharges primary onus, it shifts to AO to bring evidence to contrary – ITAT
• Cost Inflation Index for FY/Tax Year 2026-27 notified by CBDT. See Up-to-date Table of CII
• Power of CIT(A) u/s 251(1)(a) to remand case can be exercised only in best judgment assessment