Auditing standards for secretarial audit on the anvil, says ICSI President

The Company Secretaries Institute plans to roll out separate auditing standards for Secretarial Audit as part of its overall effort to strengthen governance standards in the corporate sector. “These proposed standards would be mandatory for our members alone. These are not the standards to be followed by the company or the board,” Makarand Lele, President, the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), told BusinessLine in an interview.

Just as there are auditing standards for financial statutory auditors, there will now be auditing standards for those involved in Secretarial Audit, Lele explained. Lele said in the first phase the Company Secretaries Institute has lined up four auditing standards on Secretarial Audit. These are (1) Auditing Standard on the Audit engagement (2) Auditing Standard on Audit Process and documentation (3) Auditing Standard on forming of Audit opinion and (4) Auditing Standard on Secretarial Audit report.

Lele said these four standards would be issued in the coming months and would go a long way in harmonising Secretarial Audit practices among its members across the country. “The main purpose is to streamline and enable members to effectively undertake Secretarial Audit and ensure compliance and governance in auditing.

Meanwhile, asked about the status of the ICSI Task Force’s recommendations on diligence reports on consortium lending by banks, Lele said ICSI was committed to it and would pursue the matter with RBI. The ICSI Task Force had in January this year submitted its report on a possible makeover of the diligence reports on consortium lending by banks.

Srivats.kr@thehindu.co

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