Journalism of Courage
A software named e-Prakash,which was launched on Thursday by the Maharashtra Cooperatives Department,is expected to bring transparency in the audit allotment of urban co-operative banks to audit firms and individual auditors across the state. The software,which is initiated under e-governance,is the brainchild of Commissioner and Registrar of Cooperative Societies (Maharashtra) Rajagopal Devara.
Ideally,big audit firms should be doing audit of big banks. Since the audit allotment was done manually till now,the bigger firms used to end up doing audit of small banks and vice versa. But now,firms who have good work experience,manpower and good track record will get to audit banks with high deposit. Within a days time of the softwares launch,more than 121 auditors have accepted audit of different firms, said Dinesh Oulkar,additional commissioner,Maharashtra Cooperatives Department.
Elaborating it,Oulkar said,At present,the bank with the highest deposit is Pune Janata Bank with a deposit of more than Rs 2500 crore. So the firm that has got the highest rating by WIRC will be doing the audit of Pune Janata Bank.
Apart from bringing transparency in the audit allotment process,it is also expected that the initiative will help in finishing the audit work in the record time.
What is significant about e-Prakash is that the auditors are not required to visit the Maharashtra Cooperatives Department for the formalities. All they need to do is visit the website mhcooperative.org and check their allotment status.
They have an option of accepting or declining the allotment. After clicking the Accept button,they can download the allotment letter and get on to the audit procedure, said Oulkar.
At present,the allotment of the banks is declared for next three years but the same will be reviewed and revised next year,depending upon the change in the banks deposit.
