EPFO Issues New Guidelines to Ensure Fairness, Transparency and Accuracy in Audit Process

The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) under the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India, has recently issued a circular (No. Audit/PolicymatterCirculars/2025/40), dated October 24, 2025. Through the said circular, EPFO has issued a set of instructions for performing the audit process for ensuring fairness, transparency and accuracy in compliance by the auditee offices/units, internal audit parties (IAPs) and zonal audit committees (ZACs).

During an internal audit, if the Internal Audit Party (IAP) finds any issue or shortcoming (called an audit slip) in an office or unit that involves money and may concern any EPFO officer or employee, the following steps must be followed:

• The audited office/unit must share a copy of the audit slip with the concerned officer/employee, along with all related documents. This gives them a fair chance to explain or provide their comments.
• The concerned officer/employee must send their comments or explanation to the audited office within the given time.
• The audited office/unit should include those comments or explanations when sending its reply to the IAP. This reply should also have a copy of the officer’s comments attached.
• Thereafter, the Internal Audit Party (IAP) will analyse the submitted reply from the audit office and the comments from the concerned officer/employee. Based on that, the IAP will decide on any further actions, like dropping the audit slips/audit engagement conclusions/recommendations (corrective actions) and Draft Audit Report (DAR).

Refer to the official circular for complete information.