Forensic Audit Of Mutual Funds, AMCs Soon; Check All Details About SEBI’s Latest Tender

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has floated a tender inviting expression of interest (EOI) for empanelment of forensic auditors for conducting forensic audit of Mutual Funds, its Asset Management Companies, its Trustee companies or board of trustees.

The tender stated that the firms/body corporates shall also be experienced in the field of Digital Forensic Services for Acquisition, Extraction and Analysis of Digital evidence from mobile, computers, tablets etc. on an ongoing basis.

The applicant will be required to;

1. Undertake Forensic acquisition, extraction including Imaging of different types of digital devices such as Laptops, Mobile phones, Smartphones (including I-phones, I-pads, Tablets), Hard Drives, USB drives, CDs/DVDs, Servers, Cloud Network etc.

2. Hash value report generation and preparing separate working copy by using legal and most efficient and updated forensic tools.

3. Undertake Digital & Mobile Forensics including indexing of complete data, timeline analysis, meta data analysis, Decryption and password cracking, keyword searching, data retrieval etc.

4. Carry out such analysis as required by Sebi using appropriate tools.

5. Maintain confidentiality of information gathered during the assignment.

6. Preparation and submission of a report mentioning about the findings and conclusions on the analysis / examination as per the terms of reference and within timelines specified by Sebi.

Also Read: Whistleblower Protection, Prevention Of Fraud And Market Abuse; Here’s What Sebi Wants From Stock Brokers

Sebi said that the detailed application by the firms as per the Annexure provided should reach Sebi by March 06, 2023.

Recently, Sebi also proposed an institutional mechanism that will require stock brokers to put in place systems for detection and prevention of market abuse.

Sebi has released a consultation paper that seeks views from market participants on a proposal which requires broking firms and their senior management to be accountable for such detection/ prevention of fraud or marker abuse, by setting up robust surveillance and control systems, and ensuring appropriate escalation and reporting mechanisms.

This proposal also enumerates some of the common examples of market abuses that brokers must look to detect/prevent, the entities who should be subject to surveillance, and the accountability that is entailed.

Currently, there are no specific regulatory provisions that cast responsibility on brokers to put in place systems for detection and prevention of fraud or market abuse.

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