UCO Bank has announced the empanelment of Stock and Receivables Auditors for the audit of stocks and book debts taken as security against loans and advances. The application period is open until March 12, 2025. Eligible applicants must meet the bank’s criteria, including qualifications such as being a Chartered Accountant or Cost Accountant, with at least three years of experience in stock auditing for commercial banks. Auditors with specialized expertise in sectors like jewelry, chemicals, or artworks are also encouraged to apply. The empanelment will be valid for three years. Applicants must submit their applications in a prescribed format along with all necessary supporting documents to the relevant Zonal Offices. The bank reserves the right to reject any application without notice. The scope of stock audits includes verification of physical stock, stock valuation, insurance, receivables, and maintenance of records, among other areas. Auditors will also be responsible for ensuring compliance with financial regulations, verifying the adequacy of collateral, and examining inventory and debtor accounts. The bank expects auditors to be thorough in identifying deficiencies and report on any potential risks related to stock and receivables. Non-compliance, professional misconduct, or unsatisfactory service may result in removal from the panel.
Date- 10.02.2025
PUBLIC NOTICE-EMPANELLEMENT OF STOCK AUDITORS & RECEIVABLES AUDITOR FOR THE BANK
UCO Bank invites application for empanelment of Auditors for Stock & Receivables, floated in the Bank’s Website for Audit of our borrower’s Stock & book debt taken/to be taken as security against loans & advances from the eligible borrower accounts subject to fulfillment of the Eligibility Criteria related to educational qualifications, experience & other requirements as mentioned hereunder. Application format (Annexure-I) for empanelment as stock & book debt auditor (On letter head of Stock Auditor Firm), Code of Conduct document for stock auditors (Annexure-II), and proforma of declaration-cum-undertaking (Annexure-III) to be submitted by the applicant stock auditors are made available online with this advertisement.
UCO Bank’s corporate website (www.ucobank.com)4 Tenders/Notices 4 Empanelment of Stock & Receivables Auditor.
Last Date: 12.03.2025 (Receipt of Hardcopy of application in prescribed format completed in all respect along with all supportive documents as stated in the application form in a sealed envelope)
Addressed to: Zonal Manager (Respective Zone)
Uco Bank
Zonal Office (Address attached to the Annexure IV)
Sealed envelope with inscription – “Application for Empanelment of Stock & Receivables Auditor”.
The Applicants who fulfill the eligibility criterion are required to submit the applications to the concerned Zonal Offices where they intend to get empaneled if having their offices at the centre with sufficient infrastructure. Applicants interested for Stock Audit can apply during the application submission period i.e. till 12.03.2025. Empanelment will be valid for Three (3) years unless removed from the panel.
Note:
1. Bank reserves all the rights to reject any application without prior notice without assigning any reason thereof.
2. The invitation for empanelment is for fresh as well as existing stock & book debt auditors empanelled with us.
3. Application received after due date and also without relevant particulars will be summarily rejected and Bank’s discretion will be final in all respect.
Deputy General Manager
Credit Monitoring
Head Office, Kolkata
A. EXPERIENCE AND OTHER PARAMETERS:
In view of significant relevance placed upon Stock Auditors, the criteria for selection are as under:
Educational Qualifications (Proprietor/Partner/ Firm):
- The applicant should be a qualified Chartered Accountant / Cost Accountants or a firm of Chartered / Cost Accountants registered with Institute of Chartered Accountants of India/ Institute of Cost Accountants of India.
- A fellow/associate member of Institution of Stock Auditors as specialist in jewellery, precious stones & ornaments or as specialist in Works of Art or as Stock Auditor for chemicals or as Stock Auditor of any such specialized stock may also apply for empanelment as stock auditor for such specialized categories. An audit firm having at least one such partner or senior employee shall be eligible for being empanelled as stock auditor for such specialized stock.
EXPERIENCE AS STOCK & BOOK DEBT AUDITORS AND OTHER PARAMETERS:
- The applicant should have minimum 3 years’ post-qualification practicing experience as Stock Auditor with any of the commercial Banks (Public or Private). In case of Firm etc, the individual experience of the any partners etc of at least 3 years can also be considered.
- In case the Stock auditor / proprietor or any of the partners of the audit firm / employee of the audit firm is an ex-employee of our Bank, such stock auditor / audit firm shall be eligible for empanelment after a cooling period of two (2) years from the date of retirement of that employee.
OTHER CRITERIA
- The applicant should be an Indian citizen/Firm registered in India.
- There must be minimum 2 trained /Semi trained employees/Trainees/ Apprentices besides a Chartered Accountant/Cost Accountant.
- Adequate knowledge of financial analysis.
- The applicant individuals/firms as well as all partners must be income tax assesse.
- The auditors against whom complaints have been registered with CBI/ SFIO/ police/court of law &/or blacklisted by any bank / FI/RBI/ IBA/etc shall not be eligible.
- An undercharged insolvent shall not be eligible for empanelment.
- A central statutory auditor of the Bank shall not be eligible for empanelment as stock auditor during the tenor as statutory Auditor. Statutory / concurrent auditor of a branch shall not be eligible for undertaking stock audits related to the same branch, even if empanelled.
B. CATEGORIES OF THE STOCK AUDITORS
| Category | Criteria | Advance Limit |
| A | Stock audit experience up to 5 years | Up to Rs.5.00 crores |
| B | Stock audit experience up to 5 years plus empanelment with one PSB as Stock Auditor | Up to Rs. 25.00 crores |
| C | Stock audit experience more than 5 years plus empanelment with one PSB as Stock Auditor | No limit |
| D | Empanelled for Specialised stock viz. Jewellery, precious stones, metals, artworks etc. | No limit |
C. SCOPE OF STOCK AUDIT:
The scope of stock audit generally includes detailed assessment of stocks and receivables, which are termed as current assets including quality, marketability, value, age, insurance (and assignment thereof) etc. which are likely to influence the assets charged to the bank.
Stock Auditors should invariably verify following aspects in order to maintain quality of Stock audit:
1. PHYSICAL VERIFICATION OF STOCK:
- The latest stock statement submitted by the borrower is to be provided to Auditors and the stock statements as on date of inspection is to be obtained. Movement of stock is to be analyzed by the Auditor vis-à-vis turnover in the account with the Bank(s). Physical counting of high value stock is to be done.
- To physically verify the value of paid Stock {by excluding the total value of unpaid stock with reference to the level of Trade Creditors and the value of stock procured under the Non Fund based credit limits viz., Letter of Credit(LC)/Bank Guarantee(BG) from the total stock} available in the borrower’s location (office /factory/godown/stockyard as the case may be) and confirm that the same together with the eligible Stock/Book Debts are sufficient to cover the total amount outstanding in the Working Capital Limits along with the required level of margin.
- To verify whether the value of stock (procured under Non fund based limits also) available on the date of physical verification along with the eligible Book Debts emanated from the sale of such goods is sufficient to cover the outstanding in the fund based working capital limit, total amount of Bill Liability under the Non fund based limits including Bank Guarantee Limit for supply of goods.
- To carry out physical examination of stock to ascertain the quality, slow moving goods, non-moving goods, value and age of the inventory thereby identifying whether there exists any obsolete stock & if yes, whether it has been segregated & written off and excluded while arriving the drawing power.
- To ascertain whether physical stock tally with the stock statement submitted to the Bank.
2. VALUATION OF STOCK: Auditors should verify the price of the inventories with invoices and its reasonableness. Valuation of semi-finished and finished goods should be done on factory price not on sale price.
3. STORAGE AND INSURANCE OF STOCK
- To verify whether the stock is adequately and properly insured against fire and other natural calamities (in appropriate cases against other risks like theft, burglary, marine, riots etc. as per sanction) hypothecated with our Bank and same is in force.
- The auditor should verify adequacy and quality of preservation / storage in place and handling of stock. Also ensure that the place(s) of storage is/are the same as captured in the security documents.
- To ensure the eligible stock are under our Bank hypothecation have also not been charged to other Banks. In the case of consortium /multiple banking arrangements our share of stock is maintained out of total stock hypothecated to consortium/lenders under multiple banking arrangements.
4. VERIFICATION OF RECEIVABLES.
Auditors should verify the details of debtors with sale register. It should also be checked whether the debtor register is periodically updated.
To examine the age wise debtors outstanding as per books and as per statement submitted by the borrower, steps taken for recovery of long pending debtors and likely instances of debtors turning bad, if any.
To verify details of Book debts- Written off and offer their comments thereof.
5. VERIFICATION OF PAYABLES: Auditors should verify the creditors with invoices, purchase register and terms of payment to find out unpaid stock position. It should be further ensured that creditors for capital goods are not included in current asset. Promptness of the party to pay their creditors should also be examined and commented thereto.
6. MAINTENANCE OF REGISTER/RECORDS:
Auditors should verify maintenance and periodical updation of various registers / records / Books of accounts such as Stock Register, Purchase Register, Sales Register, Debtors Register, Creditors Register, Stock movement Register, GST returns, Purchase Invoices, Sales Invoices, Credit Notes, Debit Notes etc., including data in digital forms maintained in TALLY/SAP/ERP etc. by the borrower.
7. OTHER AREAS: In addition to above matters Auditors should verify scrupulously compliance of the following matter by borrower:
- Business turnover is routed through Bank account. Statement of account is to be verified to find end use of the funds and verify whether any diversion of funds, interlocking of funds among associates concern /sister concerns / related party transaction etc.
- To verify the quality of operation of the accounts such as cash withdrawal, cheque returns, Clearing Cheque outstanding, number of times the account remained overdrawn, adjustment of returned discounted cheques, overdues, LC devolvement, Invoked Bank Guarantees etc.
- In applicable cases CERSAI registration/ROC/payment of any guarantee fees etc. is to be verified.
- To comment on the turnover in the account and confirming if it is commensurate with sales in case of sole/consortium/multiple banking
8. VERIFICATION OF RECEIVABLES.
- Auditors should verify the details of debtors with sale register. It should also be checked whether the debtor register is periodically updated.
- To examine the age wise debtors outstanding as per books and as per statement submitted by the borrower, steps taken for recovery of long pending debtors and likely instances of debtors turning bad, if any.
- To verify details of Book debts- Written off and offer their comments thereof.
9. VERIFICATION OF PAYABLES:
Auditors should verify the creditors with invoices, purchase register and terms of payment to find out unpaid stock position. It should be further ensured that creditors for capital goods are not included in current asset. Promptness of the party to pay their creditors should also be examined and commented thereto.
10. MAINTENANCE OF REGISTER/RECORDS:
Auditors should verify maintenance and periodical updation of various registers / records / Books of accounts such as Stock Register, Purchase Register, Sales Register, Debtors Register, Creditors Register, Stock movement Register, GST returns, Purchase Invoices, Sales Invoices, Credit Notes, Debit Notes etc,including data in digital forms maintained in TALLY/SAP/ERP etc. by the borrower.
OTHER AREAS: In addition to above matters Auditors should verify scrupulously compliance of the following matter by borrower:
- Business turnover is routed through Bank account. Statement of account is to be verified to find end use of the funds and verify whether any diversion of funds, interlocking of funds among associates concern /sister concerns / related party transaction etc.
- To verify the quality of operation of the accounts such as cash withdrawal, cheque returns, Clearing Cheque outstanding, number of times the account remained overdrawn, adjustment of returned discounted cheques, overdues, LC devolvement, Invoked Bank Guarantees etc.
- In applicable cases CERSAI registration/ROC/payment of any guarantee fees etc. is to be verified.
- To comment on the turnover in the account and confirming if it is commensurate with sales in case of sole/consortium/multiple banking arrangements. Auditor should also reconcile realized GST sales with the turnover in the account.
- Up to date compliance of statutory provisions like renewal of registration /license, payment of GST/Income-tax, statutory dues like PF/ESI, rent etc.
- Bank’s hypothecation board on business premise, godown/unit.
- To examine whether External Credit Rating has been carried out in eligible accounts.
- To comment on the timely submission of Stock / Book Debts statement, MSOD, QMR, HMR, Fund Flow statement etc by borrower.
- To check the Early Warning Signals (EWS) in the account and comments thereon.
11. COMPUTATION OF DRAWING POWER: Auditors must verify that the following items are excluded in arriving drawing power:
Dead Stocks/obsolete stocks, ii) Unpaid stocks, iii) Stocks received in respect of non-retired LC bills, iv) Old and non-realizable Debtors (Generally more than 90 days, if not any special provision is allowed by sanctioning authority), v) non- current assets shown as current assets.
Stock audit is necessary to identify deficiencies at an early stage. Any erosion in the value of securities directly affects the quality of the portfolio and bank loses its recourse in case of default.
Therefore Stock Audit is to be conducted in time and compliance thereafter must be done by the branches in time bound manner. Stock Auditors should also be appraised suitably about scope of stock audit before allotment of audit job.
D. REMOVAL/DE-PANELMENT OF STOCK AUDITORS:
Stock Auditor shall be removed from the Bank’s panel for unsatisfactory performance and service quality and/or for any negligence, lapses, professional misconduct and/or unfair practices resorted to by Stock Auditor.
Download Full Details and Forms: https://www.ucobank.com/documents/20120/178064/Empanellment%20of%20stock%20auditors%202024-252025_02_11_08_45_54.pdf
(Republished with amendments)
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