Common Questions
Most Popular Questions
A secretarial audit is an independent review conducted to assess compliance with legal, regulatory, and governance requirements, ensuring transparency, accountability, and risk management for companies in India.
Objectives include verifying compliance with applicable laws, rules, regulations, and internal policies, identifying areas of non-compliance or weaknesses, and recommending corrective actions or improvements
Qualified company secretaries, chartered accountants, or firms of company secretaries or chartered accountants registered with the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) or the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) can conduct secretarial audits.
Key areas include corporate governance practices, compliance with company law provisions, maintenance of statutory registers, filings with regulatory authorities, and adherence to internal policies and procedures.
Yes, Avenue Advisory provides professional secretarial audit services, including planning, execution, reporting, and advisory support, tailored to the specific needs and requirements of each client.
The company incurs the cost of the secretarial audit.
Yes, private companies not falling under the mandatory categories can choose not to undergo a secretarial audit. However, doing so may raise concerns about governance practices and transparency.
The process involves planning and scoping, conducting fieldwork and document review, testing compliance with applicable laws and regulations, preparing audit reports, and providing recommendations or observations.
Avenue Advisory adheres to professional ethics and standards, maintains independence in the audit process, and provides unbiased assessments based on factual evidence and expert analysis.
Benefits include identification of compliance gaps, mitigation of risks, enhancement of corporate governance practices, avoidance of penalties or legal actions, and strengthening of stakeholder confidence.
Avenue Advisory adds value by providing insights, recommendations, and best practices for improving compliance, governance, and risk management processes, tailored to the specific needs and objectives of each client.
Secretarial audits are mandated for certain categories of companies under the Companies Act, 2013, and the rules prescribed by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), with requirements for filing audit reports with regulatory authorities and disclosures in annual reports.
The company is responsible for taking corrective action to address the non-compliance within a specified timeframe. Failure to do so may attract legal penalties.