Empanelment of Concurrent Auditors for Union Bank of India

1. Invitation for empanelment

1.1. Union Bank of India conducts process for Empanelment of Concurrent Auditors, once in a year. This document is published as part of process for Empanelment of Concurrent Auditors for the FY 2021-22.

1.2. Union Bank of India invites applications in the prescribed format from practicing firms of Chartered Accountants who are willing to have their firm empanelled as Concurrent Auditor with Union Bank of India. Only one application should be submitted ONLINE

(https://eremit.unionbankofindia.co.in/auditor).

1.3. Empanelment would be valid up to 31st March 2022. The Bank may allot the Concurrent Audit assignment during empanelment period as and when there is a requirement.

1.4. APPLICATION FORMS NEED NOT BE PRINTED AND SENT TO THE BANK. OLD SYSTEM OF FORWARDING PRINTED APPLICATION ALONGWITH CERTIFICATES AT THE TIME OF ONLINE SUBMISSION TO BANK HAS BEEN DISPENSED WITH. HOWEVER, IT IS MANDATORY FOR APPLICANT TO SUBMIT DULY SIGNED APPLICATION FORM AND OTHER REVELVANT DOCUMENTS AS AND WHEN ADVISED BY THE BANK.

1.5. Last date for filing of Online Application is 01.03.2021, upto 05.00 pm.

1.6. Mere submission of application does not, in any way, constitute any right for allotment of any audit job from the Bank. After empanelment, the work will be allotted as and when need arises at the sole discretion of the Bank.

2. Eligibility Criteria

3. The following type of Audit firms are not eligible to participate for empanelment process:

i) If Firm / any partner has been disqualified / de-empanelled or whose appointment has been terminated by RBI/ ICAI/ Bank / any other Bank on an earlier occasion.

ii) The Audit firm or its associate concerns should not be conducting Statutory / Concurrent Audit of Union Bank of India/erstwhile Andhra Bank/erstwhile Corporation Bank or any of its Branches for financial year 2020-21. The Audit firm or its associate concern, whose Statutory Audit term is yet to expire may apply for Concurrent Audit empanelment provided concerned Audit firm or its associate concern sacrifices the Statutory Audit assignment.

“Associate concerns means any corporate body or partnership firm wherein the partner(s) of the Statutory Audit firm and/or their relative(s) is/are Directors or partners and/or jointly or severally hold 20% or more of the interest in the corporate body or partnership.

“Relative” for this purpose will mean the spouse or any lineal ascendant or descendant of the partner of the Statutory Audit firm.”

iii) Any canvassing, influence or reference to appointment of audit firms will render the application invalid.

4. Evaluation of CA firm for allotment of Concurrent Audit

4.1. The CA firm will be evaluated based on the following parameters

i) Eligibility criteria as mentioned above.

ii) Preference will be given to Audit firm having office in the same centre as that of Auditee Branch.

iii) Experience of Concurrent Audit with Union Bank of India and/or Other Public Sector Bank.

iv) Weightage will be given to firms where partners themselves are ex-Bankers with requisite experience and exposure.

v) Efforts will be made to allot the branches to the CA firms based on minimum category suggested by RBI and Internal Concurrent Audit Policy of Bank. However, in case CA firm of requisite category is not available in particular location, then Bank will select suitable CA firm either from lower or higher category.

Regarding appointment of Concurrent Auditors from RBI panel as per gradation based on Advances position of Branch, it is proposed to allot Branches to Concurrent Auditors as under:

4.2. Merely meeting the eligibility criteria shall not automatically entitle the CA firm for empanelment. After empanelment, the work will be allotted as and when need arises at the sole discretion of the Bank. The empanelment will not give any right to the empanelled firm for carrying out the assignments. The Bank reserves its right to cancel any or all the offers without assigning any reason whatsoever.

5. Terms and Conditions

5.1. At any one point of time, not more than one audit assignment shall be awarded to single firm. An audit assignment that needs to be carried out across branches/units at different locations shall be considered as a single assignment for this purpose. Hence the existing Concurrent Auditors who have not completed three years tenure as Concurrent Auditor at the present branch/office of Union Bank of India/ erstwhile Andhra Bank/ erstwhile Corporation Bank are not eligible to apply. CA firms may apply during cooling period. However their application shall be considered only after completion of cooling period of one year. Cooling period for auditors who refuse Bank’s offer or cease to continue the Concurrent Audit assignment before expiry of its tenure without cogent reasons will be three financial years.

5.2. Concurrent Auditors shall not undertake any other activities on behalf of the branch without obtaining concurrence of Audit and Inspection in writing.

5.3. The firm shall execute undertaking of fidelity and secrecy on its letterhead in the format prescribed by Bank.

5.4. In order to avoid conflict of interest, an undertaking shall be obtained from the Concurrent Auditors that they do not have any professional or commercial relationship with the borrowers of the Branch/Department which they are auditing.

5.5. The Concurrent Auditor shall sign the Do’s & Don’ts statement in order to have proper arms length relationship with the Branch / Department of which they are conducting Audit.

5.6. A declaration shall be furnished by the firm 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 guarantors have not turned or are existing as non-performing assets as per prudential norms of RBI. In case the declaration is found incorrect, the assignment shall get terminated besides the firm being liable for any action under ICAI / RBI guidelines.

5.7. All necessary certificates including quarterly, half-yearly, annual closing of Book of Accounts that need to be given by audit firm as a part of Concurrent Audit assignment shall be given under its letterhead without any additional certification fee.

5.8. A detailed checklist and other latest operating guidelines, view ID, required Menus for verification of details shall be provided to the Concurrent Auditors.

5.9. Appointment of Concurrent Audit shall be purely at discretion of the Bank and no rights whatsoever accrue to the firm for such appointment.

5.10. Audit firms shall submit monthly/quarterly/half-yearly reports in structured formats within stipulated period i.e. within 10 days of the completion of month /quarter /half-year. Any persistent delay shall be viewed negatively at the time of review of the CA firm & Bank also reserves the right to levy penalty as specified hereunder :

Delayed submission of reports will be viewed seriously and a penalty of 10% will be deducted if the report is submitted after 10th but before 20th of the next month to which the report pertains. In case the report is submitted after 20th but before the end of the month a penalty of 20% will be deducted from the fees payable.

5.11. Bank shall monitor the performance of audit firms closely. Performance of the Firms shall be evaluated quarterly for their quality and coverage of reporting (Please refer Annexure-I). In case, CA firm is not attending audit work properly, continuous delay in submission of reports, non-reporting of serious irregularities/deviations, non-detection of fraud, non-detection of Leakage of income in branches where they are conducting Concurrent Audit, Bank reserves the right to terminate the assignment, without assigning any reason by giving 7 days notice. In case of termination of assignment, the remuneration for the incomplete month shall not be payable by the Bank. Moreover, the firm shall be debarred from empanelment for three financial years.

5.12. Similarly, the CA firm may terminate the Agreement of Concurrent Audit assignment with one month prior notice. In such case too, the remuneration for the incomplete month shall not be paid by the Bank. However, as far as possible, the CA firm shall complete the Audit for the month including submission of Report for the month, before effecting its termination. Cooling period for such termination cases will be three financial years, if the same is without any cogent reasons.

5.13. Concurrent Auditors shall not be permitted to mobilize any credit related proposals for any of the Branches of the Bank during the tenure of their assignment.

5.14. The Firm should undertake that they will not subcontract the audit assignment.

5.15. As per the extant Concurrent Audit Policy, appointment of Concurrent Auditors will be made initially for a period of one year. The term may be extended, solely at the discretion of the Bank, for a further period of two (1+1) years on receiving satisfactory feedback from Auditee Branch and respective Zonal Audit office about their overall performance. A cooling period of 1 year shall be given after completion of three years of audit.

5.16. Bank will conduct review/renewal process of Concurrent Audit assignment and appointment of new Concurrent Auditors as of March every year. However, if an auditor is assigned with the Concurrent Audit in between as per the exigencies of Bank the initial tenure shall be only for the remaining period up to March of same FY and it shall be renewed for a further period of two (1+1) years as of March based on the performance feedback received from Auditee Branch/ unit and respective Zonal Audit office.

5.17. If the Branch under Concurrent Audit is closed or removed from Concurrent Audit due to official exigencies and for any other reasons whatsoever, the tenure of the Concurrent Auditor of that Branch will stand terminated automatically. In such cases Bank will not be liable to give alternate Branch for audit to the CA firm whose Concurrent Audit assignment is so terminated.

5.18. On change of identity / change of firm name, during the currency of audit term, due to merger / amalgamation / reconstitution / any other reason, the Bank reserves it’s right to allow the new firm to continue with the Concurrent Audit assigned to the old firm provided the new firm fulfils all the eligibility criteria given in our tender document.

5.19. The Bank reserves its discretion to accept or reject the application of any Firm bases on the guidelines issued by the regulators or by the Bank.

5.20. The applicants shall opt for the Centre wherever they have their own offices.

5.21. The Firms shall provide the particulars of assignments currently at hand in the column provided in the application form. The allotment will be done based on the number of qualified personnel available and the current assignments in hand. In case the Bank feels that it will be difficult for the firm to undertake the work, then that firm will not be considered for allotment of concurrent audit.

5.22. Application which is incomplete is liable to be rejected.

5.23. Bank reserves its right to maintain a separate panel of Audit Firms for undertaking specialized audits viz., Forex, Risk Management, System Audit etc., from the applications received in present process. Audit Firms are advised to indicate their specialization/qualifications of auditing for these specific areas.

5.24. The Audit firms allotted with the audit of branches that are designated to carry out Forex business should have necessary expertise to carry out the audit of Forex operations with adequate earlier experience of auditing such branches.

5.25. Concurrent Audit firm has to ensure to follow relevant Standard on Auditing (SA) while conducting Concurrent Audit.