Owing to lack of Audit Report, No Annual General Meeting for Housing Societies

The Cooperative Housing Societies all over the State of Maharashtra are in a very difficult situation as their annual general meeting (AGM) for the year 2020-21 which was scheduled for September will not be able to take place due to the lack of audit report. With the Covid 19 pandemic and lockdown being imposed all over the state the auditors to submit the audit could not do so, that’s why the August 31 of every year for submission of the audit report was postponed to September. 

 

A recent statement from the Mumbai Division Certified Auditor’s Association, consisting of 1,200 auditors stated that there is more than 60 percent of societies in the State of Maharashtra that does not have the audit report. “As the government had asked to work with only 50 percent staff, we were unable to complete all the audit, with very little staff the work could not be completed. With this the local train service was also closed so our staff could not cover all the buildings by road,” stated Rahul Patil, the President of the Association.

 

Further, he stated that there were many cases when our staff reached the place and the housing societies themselves were not prepared with their accounts due to the Covid 19 restrictions. A petition has been sent to the state government from the Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association (MSWA), the association for flat owners. They have asked to extend the deadline for the Annual General Meeting (AGM). The auditors should be permitted to present the audit report till November end and the date for Annual General Meeting (AGM) should be extended to December 31,” stated MSWA Chairman Ramesh Prabhu.

 

The problem has been acknowledged the problem but has also blamed the auditors for this delay. “It should have been made sure by the auditors to fill the audit report on time as in the second lockdown there was enough flexibility compared to the first. There is no fault of the society members here, and we look forward to solving this issue on a positive note,” stated Patil.