MoI outsources task of conducting audits of 30 firms

The government has outsourced the job of conducting due-diligence audits of around 30 firms waiting to be declared as ´sick industries´.
The Ministry of Industry (MoI) outsourced the task to four chartered accountants as it lacked expertise on evaluating financial status of those firms.
"Four chartered accountants from the Association of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ACAN) are currently trying to identify the actual financial status of the firms that are waiting to be tagged as sick industries," Bishnu Dhakal, under secretary at the MoI, told Republca.
The MoI outsourced the job as a technical committee, formed to identify sick industries and recommend facilities for them, required complete financial details of those firms.
The technical committee, which has the ultimate authority to identify and recommend facilities for sick industries, is now working with the team of chartered accountants to chart out financial support required by the firms.
More than 30 firms filed applications at the MoI to get status of sick industries almost a year ago.
"The chartered accountants will conduct audits of those firms and prescribe financial support they require from the government for recovery." Dhakal said. "Additionally, they will also carry out study on what pushed them to the verge of collapse."
Earlier, the Council of Ministers had approved the terms of reference of the technical committee, providing it more teeth to finalize the task of identifying actual sick industries.
"The ministry will prepare a list of sick industries and support they need to rebuild themselves after carefully analyzing their financial status," Dhakal said.
The government had earlier announced to provide relief package to sick industries through its Immediate Relief Program 2011/12.
The MoI was assigned to identify actual number of sick industries after the Sick Industries Rehabilitation High Level Task Force prepared a report with recommendations to revive sick industries in 2011.