Professional Development Committee (PDC) is pleased to host the Multipurpose Empanelment Form (MEF) for the year 2020-21, which is available at www.meficai.org. In this year, the PDC is seeking additional information related to professional experience in the fields other than Bank Branch Audit. To capture varied experience of the members, certain new fields like Internal Audit, Indirect Tax, Forensic, International experience etc. have been included. This will enable us to put forward the MEF database at appropriate fora for various professional opportunities other than Bank Audit. The members should come forward and fill their information, though optional, and avail the benefit of multiple opportunities under one umbrella.

The key highlights of the MEF- 2020-21 are:

Field of District in the address of the Firm 

• In green field, the District is populated as per the records available in SSP. The same is to be confirmed by the applicant in the column “District as per Applicant”. In case, the district on the basis of the address of the applicant in SSP is incorrect, then applicant needs to select the correct District or else select the same District (as appearing in the field-District as per ICAI) in this field.

• In case, the address of the applicant has been changed from the address as appearing in green fields, the address is to be changed in Institute’s record through SSP and then only the new address will be considered. However, the applicant may inform through grey fields and update in SSP of lCAI.

OTP based Validation of Declaration

• For this year, the declaration for the MEF Application will be sought from the member/ partners/ proprietor through validation of One Time Password (OTP) instead of scanned / digital signatures as was done in the past.

• In case of Partnership firms, all the continuing partners must validate the declaration through OTP else the MEF application will not be treated as submitted.

• In case, any partner has retired/left, the change in constitution of the firm needs to be updated in the SSP of ICAI so that she / he is not a continuing partner and thereupon MEF application can be accepted without validation of OTPs from such partners.

Category / Ineligibility of Application

• The category will be informed to the applicant on the submission of the Declaration validated through OTP by all the continuing Partners / Proprietor / Member practicing in his individual name. Further, in case of the applicant is ineligible for Bank Branch Auditors’ Panel, the reason therefor would be exhibited in the acknowledgement after submission of the Declaration.

Common Partners

• The information of association of the partner / proprietor / member elsewhere will be shared immediately to the applicant on logging to the MEF.
• The firms with common partners who will withdraw from Bank Branch Auditors’ Panel (for making one firm eligible for Bank Branch Auditors’ Panel) will be considered for other Panels.

It may be noted that change in any data in MEF will only be considered if it is updated and reflected in SSP of ICAI at the link eservices.icai.org

Once again it may informed that the MEF Application can be submitted only on uploading the  Financial Documents of the firm and continuing Partners/Proprietor/Member practicing in his individual name, as the case may be. After submission of the MEF Form, the declaration is to be validated by all continuing partners through OTP, else the MEF application will not be processed further.

With kind regards,