Briefly explain the role of a Practising Company Secretary in concurrent audit of depository participants.

National Securities Depository Limited vide its Circular No. NSDL/POLICY/2006/0021 dated June 24, 2006 provides for concurrent audit of the Depository Participants. The Circular provides that w.e.f. August 1, 2006, the process of demat account opening, control and verification of Delivery Instruction Slips (DIS) is subject to Concurrent Audit. Depository Participants have been advised to appoint a firm of qualified Chartered Accountant(s) or Company Secretary (ies) holding a certificate of practice for conducting the concurrent audit. However, the participants in case they so desire, may entrust the concurrent audit to their Internal Auditors. In respect of account opening, the auditor should verify all the documents including KYC documents furnished by the Clients and verified by the officials of the Participants.