In April 2010 the Annual General Meeting appointed Deloitte Accountants BV to audit the financial statements 2011.
Role, appointment, remuneration and assessment of External Auditor
The External Auditor is appointed each year by the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. The Supervisory Board shall nominate a candidate, based on advice from the Audit Committee and Executive Board. The remuneration for the External Auditor is proposed by the Audit Committee and approved by the Supervisory Board after consultation with the Executive Board. The Supervisory Board has delegated approval for the assignment of services from the External Auditor to the Audit Committee for a period of one year. This delegation can be renewed by the Supervisory Board.
External Auditor Policy
Wessanen has established a policy for the independence of and provision of services by its external auditors. This policy stipulates that external auditors may only provide services which do not conflict with its independence and which are explicitly listed in the policy. These permissible services are audit services (e.g audit of financial statements) and non-audit services (e.g. risk management advisory services, treasury advisory services and tax planning and tax consultation services). The Audit Committee annually reviews the list of permissible services and may add to or subtract services from the list from time to time.
The audit services and non-audit services require pre-approval of the Audit Committee.
Deloitte Accountants B.V. is the Company’s External Auditor over the years 2010 and further. All audit services and non-audit services from Deloitte were pre-approved by the Audit Committee. Up and until 2009, these services were conducted by KPMG Accountants N.V.
Relationship and communication of the External Auditor with the bodies of the Company
The External Auditor attends the meeting of the Supervisory Board in which the financial statements are approved and shall in principle attend all meetings of the Audit Committee. The External Auditor simultaneously reports its findings concerning the audit of the financial statements to the Executive Board, the Supervisory Board and the Audit Committee. The functioning of the External Auditor is assessed annually. In 2010 the Company conducted a thorough assessment of the External Auditor’s functioning, the main conclusions of which will be shared in the following General Meeting of Shareholders.
Internal audit function
The Internal Auditor operates under the responsibility of the Executive Board.