Unilever 2014 Annual Report Download - page 19

ATTENDANE
Byron rote 7 / 8
Chairman of the Audit Committee
Mary Ma 8 / 8
Hxona Nyasulu 8 / 8
John Rshton 8 / 8
This table shows the membership of the Committee together with their
attendance at meetings during 2014 If Drectors are unable to attend
a meetng, they have the opportunty beforehand to dscuss any agenda
tems wth the ommttee harman Attendance s expressed as the
number of meetngs attended out of the number elgble to be attended
• Revew of the Annual Report & Accounts
• Oversght of transton to the new
external audtors
• Revew of management’s mprovements to
reportng and nternal control arrangements
• Revew of Unlever’s maor change programmes
• Revew of IT securty and data prvacy
• Ongong assessment of new regulatory
requrements for audt commttees wth respect
to reportng and governance
• Revew of Unlever’s maor change programmes
• Revew of non-fnancal KPIs
• Revew of IT securty and reslence
• Impact of new global tax regulatons
OMMITTEE MEMBERS AND ATTENDANE
HIHLIHTS OF 2014
PRIORITIES FOR 2015
MEMBERSHIP OF THE OMMITTEE
The Audt ommttee s comprsed only of ndependent
Non-Executve Drectors wth a mnmum requrement of three
such members It s chared by Byron rote The other members
are Mary Ma, Hxona Nyasulu and John Rshton For the purposes
of the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 Byron rote s the Audt
ommttee’s fnancal expert The Boards have satsfed
themselves that the current members of the Audt ommttee
are competent n fnancal matters and have recent and relevant
experence Other attendees at ommttee meetngs (or part
thereof) were the hef Fnancal Offcer, hef Audtor, roup
ontroller, hef Legal Offcer, roup Secretary and the external
audtor Throughout the year the ommttee members perodcally
met wthout others present and also held separate prvate
sessons wth the hef Fnancal Offcer, hef Audtor and the
external audtor, allowng the ommttee to dscuss any ssues
n more detal drectly
ROLE OF THE OMMITTEE
The role and responsbltes of the Audt ommttee are set out
n wrtten terms of reference whch are revewed annually by
theommttee takng nto account relevant legslaton and
recommended good practce The terms of reference are contaned
wthn ‘The overnance of Unlever’ whch s avalable on our
webste at wwwunlevercom/corporategovernance The
ommttee’s responsbltes nclude, but are not lmted to,
the followng matters wth a vew to brngng any relevant ssues
to the attenton of the Boards
• Oversght of the ntegrty of Unlever’s fnancal statements
• Revew of Unlever’s quarterly and annual fnancal statements
(ncludng clarty and completeness of dsclosure), and
approval of the quarterly tradng statements for quarter 1 and
quarter 3
• Oversght of rsk management and nternal control arrangements
• Oversght of complance wth legal and regulatory requrements
• Oversght of the external audtors’ performance, obectvty,
qualfcatons and ndependence the approval process of
non-audt servces recommendaton to the Boards of ther
nomnaton for shareholder approval and approval of ther
fees, refer to note 25 on page 128
• The performance of the nternal audt functon and
• Approval of Unlever Leadershp Executve (ULE) expense
polcy and revew of Executve Drector expenses
In order to help the ommttee meet ts oversght responsbltes,
each year management organse knowledge sessons for the
ommttee on subect areas wthn ther remt In 2014, sessons
on corporate governance and reportng updates and cyber
securty were held
HOW THE OMMITTEE HAS DISHARED ITS RESPONSIBILITIES
Durng the year, the ommttee’s prncpal actvtes were as follows
FINANIAL STATEMENTS
The ommttee revewed the quarterly fnancal press releases
together wth the assocated nternal quarterly reports from the hef
Fnancal Offcer and the Dsclosure ommttee, and wth respect
to the half-year, and full-year results the external audtors’ reports,
pror to ther publcaton They also revewed the Annual Report
and Accounts and Annual Report on Form 20-F These revews
ncorporated the accountng polces and sgnfcant udgements
and estmates underpnnng the fnancal statements as dsclosed
wthn note 1 on pages 88 and 89 Partcular attenton was pad to the
followng sgnfcant ssues n relaton to the fnancal statements
• Revenue recognton – estmaton of dscounts, ncentves on
sales made durng the year, refer to note 2 on page 90
• Drect tax provsons and contngences, refer to note 6 on pages
100 to 102
• Indrect tax provsons and contngences, refer to note 19 on
page 123
The external audtors have agreed the lst of sgnfcant ssues
dscussed by the Audt ommttee
For each of the above areas the ommttee consdered the key
facts and udgements outlned by management Members of
management attended the secton of the meetng of the ommttee
where ther tem was dscussed to answer any questons or
challenges posed by the ommttee The ssues were also
dscussed wth the external audtor and further nformaton can
be found on page 80 The ommttee was satsfed that there are
relevant accountng polces n place n relaton to these sgnfcant
ssues and management have correctly appled these polces
At the request of the Board the ommttee consdered whether
the 2014 Annual Report and Accounts was far, balanced and
understandable and whether t provded the necessary
nformaton for shareholders to assess the roup’s performance,
busness model and strategy The ommttee were satsfed that,
taken as a whole, the 2014 Annual Report and Accounts s far,
balanced and understandable
56 Unilever Annual Report and Accounts 2014Governance
REPORT OF THE
AUDIT OMMITTEE