Mehar, a Chartered Accountant was working as a Manager in Finance team of Sita Mining Ltd. Mehar was curious to know about the Secretarial Auditor comments on compliance with applicable laws and regulations. In the preli

The identification of the compliance requirements under applicable laws is just one part of the auditor, but for the management of the company it is necessary to make sure there is sufficient evidence that the company is compliant with each and every one of them. For ensuring the compliance of the applicable laws the company: should have a documented inventory of every applicable law, regulation, contractual obligation and any other form of compliance requirement which needs to comply; should publish its compliance policy which should be supported by standards, procedures, and guidelines; should exchange emails with legal compliance team, functional heads, compliance officers and others with information on compliance obligations and skills (e.g., Privacy, Procurement, HR, Finance, IT) concerning compliance matters in the information security context; should share related agendas, minutes or notes of meetings with those people on related matters; should place Internal reports concerning applicable compliance obligations, ideally with evidence that management is actively engaged in assessing the extent to which compliance is needed and aware of the risks of non-compliance; should conduct Compliance assessment\review\audit reports, noting the content, form, distribution, status. For an auditor and the company, it is required to identify the applicable legal requirement of act, regulation but should also identify the sections applicable under such regulation. Further, the legal compliance for a holding company/ subsidiary company/ joint venture company with diverse operations, the compliance requirement will vary from operation to operation based on the nature of the operations and the locations of the different operation and also based on the applicable legal instruments, and the applicable sections of the relevant laws referred in those legal instruments. The diverse operation and different geographical location may create a complexity in compliance. Dealing with the amendment in the laws is another concern in fulfilling compliance requirement, which requires that the company should keep up to date information on the compliance requirement with an information of the changes in the laws and regulations. Further, the legal team of the company should continuously communicate the effect of such changes on the Company, its holding, subsidiary, Joint Venture Company or any of the geographical area where the company operates. Some of the regulators like MCA, RBI, SEBI, from time to time issue the Master Circulars, and Master Direction, Removal of Difficulties Order etc. which helps in identifying and figuring out the actual requirement of the law which needs to be complied with.