ESIC invites applications from CA firms for appointment of concurrent auditors of ESIC Investments
The Employees’ State Insurance Corporation has issued RFP for appointment of chartered accountants firm for concurrent audit of ESIC Investments
Request for Proposal (RFP)
for
Appointment as External Concurrent Auditor (ECA)
For the audit of Employees’ State Insurance Corporation’s
(ESIC) Investments
Deadline for submission of Proposal: 21 August, 2023 by 02:00 p.m
RFP to be submitted online and addressed to:
Financial Commissioner,
Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC),
Panchdeep Bhawan,
Comrade Inderjeet Gupta (CIG) Marg,
New Delhi – 110002
Eligibility Criteria
he Applicant should be a Partnership Firm registered with the ICAI. The Applicant must be registered with the ICAI for at least 10 years as on last date of application. The Applicant should not have turnover (on receipt/cash basis) from professional services of less than Rupees One Crores (Rs. 1,00,00,000/-) for each of the last three financial years.
Bid Submission:
The Applicants are required to submit soft copies of their bids electronically on the CPP Portal, using valid Digital Signature Certificates
Scope of work:
1. Create formats/templates for the MIS to enable monitoring of the investments by Portfolio Manager(s) and ETF Managers
3. Reconcile the Fund flow and Bank Accounts of ESIC of the investments done by the ETF manager(s) and
with the Portfolio Manager(s) on a monthly basis.
4. Check the MIS from Custodian of securities of ESIC and report exceptions, if any, on an immediate basis.
5. Check the receipt of data and MIS from Portfolio Managers and report any exceptions to ESIC.
6. Check the daily transactions with the market data and report deviations.
7. Check the Credit ratings of the Investments on a daily basis and report any credit rating downgrades or
credit rating outlook of ‘negative’ / ‘watch negative’ immediately.
8. Examine and verify whether the Portfolio Managers have followed the investment pattern, investment
guidelines and the terms of agreement entered into between ESIC and the Portfolio Managers.
9. Scrutinize the investment transactions made by the Portfolio Managers in debt and transactions into
equities, on day-to-day basis to ensure that the same are as per the SOP, investment pattern as well as the investment guidelines issued by the ESIC. Also, to point out wherever deviations have been made.
10. Highlight any potential conflict of interest issues such as investment of ESIC’s funds by Portfolio Managers in TDRs of the banks under same management group.
11. Verify whether the interest received and proceeds from maturity or sale of investments are received within the due date and re-invested as per the provisions made in the investment pattern and investment guidelines issued by the ESIC. Also, to point out delays, if any, and the causes for such delay.
12. Verify whether the benefits or rights accruing to the ESIC, wherever receivable from the institutions, are received within the due date and invested as per the prescribed investment pattern and investment
guidelines of ESIC.
13. Bring out cases of delay in the receipt of benefits or rights accruing to the ESIC.
14. Verify, from the daily transaction details, whether the charges are levied correctly by the Portfolio Manager and ETF Managers as per the terms and conditions and to report any excess charges levied by Portfolio Manager on account of splitting up of investment deals.
15. Verify whether the funds were invested by Portfolio Managers as per the timelines defined in the
Agreement signed between ESIC and Portfolio Manager(s).
16. Verify whether proper records have been maintained in respect of all transactions and contracts and to ascertain whether the records are updated correctly and on timely basis.
17. Verify whether all shares, securities, debentures and other investments have been held in the name of
ESIC.
18. Verify whether there is a reasonable system of authorization at proper levels and there are adequate system of internal controls commensurate with quantum and value of investment transactions.
19. Verify whether adequate records are kept in support of each investment decision.
20. Ascertain and report whether the Investments have always been made at the optimal market rate with
respect to investments into debt securities. The ECA will look into the price on the date of investment and
check the proportion of investment closer to lowest, medium and highest rates.
21. Comment on internal control mechanism, whether the systems are adequate to avoid any internal frauds. If not, suggest a suitable mechanism after discussing the matter with the Portfolio Manager concerned.
22. Examine whether the Portfolio Manager has taken steps to address issues highlighted during the
performance review of Portfolio Managers or otherwise.
23. Bring out any other point which comes to notice of ECA during the course of audit.
24. Examine the cases of tax deducted at source and the receipt of refund for the same or the receipt of TDS certificates in Form 16-A for those cases. The details may be worked out for the cases in respect of which no refunds or TDS Certificates are received.
25. The ECA have to ensure that all the guidelines/circulars issued by the Government/ ESIC from time to time are followed and the various points mentioned in the scope of audit mentioned above are looked into.
26. The Audit Report shall also identify shortcomings in the existing set up, which are to be taken care of by issuing suitable guidelines.
27. The concurrent audit needs to be carried out and Report submitted to the ESIC on a monthly basis along with desirable certificates. The audit report for a given month and compliance for previous observations need to be submitted to ESIC by 15th day of the subsequent month.
28. In Audit Reports, audit observations regarding separate accounts of funds as may be maintained by ESIC, should be categorized separately.
29. The ECA should carry out the physical verification of holdings with the Custodian as well as other holdings with ESIC as at the end of financial year and submit verification certificate to ESIC. The ECA shall verify and issue certificate for the successful transfer of ESIC’s investments and funds in case of change of custodian.
30. Other than those mentioned above, the ECA may be required to perform any other audit related activity as required by ESIC from time to time. However, no additional fee would be chargeable to ESIC.
31. The concurrent audit would be executed at the ECA’s office itself. All the data required for audit of ESIC’s investments would be electronically shared with the ECA on a daily basis. However, the ECA will be required to review internal systems and processes at the offices of Portfolio Managers. ECA will also be required to visit ESIC’s offices/ Custodian for verification of physical securities, data or any other related information.
32. If appointed as ECA for the audit of ESIC’s investments, ESIC may verify the records of audit through an external agency, for which the ECA is required to provide necessary support.
33. The ECA shall have the necessary infrastructure, data security, flexibility to provide new MIS/ reports
required by ESIC from time to time.
34. To verify whether investments are made at the highest available yield in the respective category on the day of investment for the same period of maturity.
35. The ECA shall provide expert opinion on regulatory/procedural issues faced in the process of investment.
36. The ECA shall provide regular inputs and advisory on emerging regulatory/policy issues in India and around the world, which may help provide better and higher return and identify the risk associated with ESIC’s investment and portfolio
37. Reconcile the security balances and funds of ESIC as per the MIS from Custodian with the Portfolio Manager(s) and ETF Manager(s) on a monthly basis.
38. The ECA shall examine and verify whether the investments made by the Portfolio Manager(s) and ETF
Manager(s) are as per the Agreement signed by ESIC with Portfolio Manager(s) and ETF Manager(s).
39. The ECA will report any deviation by Portfolio Manager, ETF Managers and Custodian from agreement entered into with them
Contract Terms:
The concurrent audit needs to be carried out and its report be submitted to the ESIC on the monthly basis. The remuneration for carrying out the above assignments shall be paid on quarterly basis, subject to receipt of all monthly audit reports for the quarter. The financial bid shall be inclusive of all expenses including out of pocket expenses such as local conveyance, out of station travelling, boarding and lodging etc and exclusive of taxes on services rendered.
The CA Firm may quote its financial bid in Lump Sum per month irrespective of the number of Fund managers engaged.
Taxes applicable on the services rendered by ECA would be reimbursed separately by ESIC on producing the supporting documents.
The tenure of ECA will be for three (3) years from date of appointment. This may be extended by one year (1 year) with mutual consent of the ESIC and the ECA on the same terms and conditions, depending on the performance of the latter
Download Copy of RFP Document Click Here >>
- Jewellery purportedly received from grandparent under Will added as unexplained credits
- SC lays down tests to determine if a debt is financial debt or operational under IBC
- Commonality of directors of companies does not mean deposits received was bogus
- Application though named as rectification but if tax is not legitimate, it also touches merit: HC
- Cost of acquisition as on 01.04.1981 taken as per valuer report by reverse indexing of FMV
