Barclays 2012 Annual Report Download - page 232

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Board of Directors and Shareholders of Barclays PLC
In our opinion, the accompanying Consolidated income statements
and the related Consolidated balance sheets, Consolidated cash flow
statements, Consolidated statements of comprehensive income and
Consolidated statements of changes in equity present fairly, in all
material respects, the financial position of Barclays PLC (‘the
Company’) and its subsidiaries at 31 December 2012 and 31 December
2011 and the results of their operations and cash flows for each of the
three years in the period ended 31 December 2012, in conformity with
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) as issued by the
International Accounting Standards Board. Also, in our opinion the
Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control
over financial reporting as of 31 December 2012, based on criteria
established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework issued by the
Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission
(COSO). The Company’s management is responsible for these financial
statements, for maintaining effective internal control over financial
reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control
over financial reporting, included in Management’s report on internal
control over financial reporting as it pertains to Barclays PLC in the
Directors’ report. Our responsibility is to express opinions on these
financial statements and on the Company’s internal control over
financial reporting based on our integrated audits.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the
Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those
standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain
reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free
of material misstatement and whether effective internal control over
financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audits
of the financial statements included examining, on a test basis,
evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial
statements, assessing the accounting principles used and significant
estimates made by management, and evaluating the overall financial
statement presentation.
Our audit of internal control over financial reporting included obtaining
an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing
the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the
design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the
assessed risk. Our audits also included performing such other
procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We
believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinions.
A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process
designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of
financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for
external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting
principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting
includes those policies and procedures that (i) pertain to the
maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly
reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company;
(ii) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as
necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance
with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and
expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with
authorisations of management and directors of the company; and (iii)
provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection
of unauthorised acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets
that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial
reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of
any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk
that controls may become inadequate because of changes in
conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or
procedures may deteriorate.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
London, United Kingdom
5 March 2013
barclays.com/annualreport230 I Barclays PLC Annual Report 2012
Independent Registered Public Accounting
Firm’s report