MFs, AMCs get more time to submit applications for empanelment of auditors

Capital markets regulator Sebi extended time till March-end for submission of applications for empanelment of forensic auditors for mutual funds, asset management companies (AMCs) and trustee entities

Capital markets regulator Sebi on Tuesday extended time till March-end for submission of applications for empanelment of forensic auditors for mutual funds, asset management companies (AMCs) and trustee entities.

Earlier, the interested entities were required to submit applications by March 6.

"It has been decided to extend the last date for submission of application and the revised date for submission of application is March 31, 2023," the capital markets regulator said in a public notice.

On February 11, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had invited applications from eligible firms for empanelment of forensic auditors for MFs, their AMCs and trustee companies.

After being empanelled, the auditors would take up assignments related to forensic audit of mutual funds, their AMCs and trustee companies or board of trustees.

The applicants are required to undertake acquisition, extraction and analysis of digital evidence from mobile, computers, tablets, hard drives and USB drives. Also, the applicants need to prepare and submit a report mentioning the findings and conclusions on the analysis.

As per the eligibility criteria set by Sebi, the applicant should have at least 10 years of experience in the field of forensic audit and digital forensic and minimum of 10 partners or directors, out of which five of them should be actively involved in forensic audit-related work

Among others, total revenue of the applicant from forensic audit assignments in the last three financial years must be at least Rs 1 crore.

The Expression of Interest (EoI) came a day after Sebi proposed to enhance the role and accountability of the mutual fund trustees in a move to safeguard unitholders' interest.

Also, Sebi had proposed a common platform for dissemination of public announcements by mutual funds

In order to have an independent review mechanism for the decisions of AMC from the perspective of the unit holders' interest across all products and services, Sebi had suggested to mandate that a Unit Holder Protection Committee (UHPC) should be constituted by board of AMC.