Unilever 2013 Annual Report Download - page 56

ATTENDANE
Byron rote 9 / 9
Charman of the Audt ommttee
harles olden 5 / 5
Mary Ma 4 / 4
Hxona Nyasulu 4 / 4
John Rshton 3 / 4
Kees Storm 5 / 5
Ths table shows the attendance of Drectors at ommttee meetngs
for the year ended 31 December 2013 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
• Tender for statutory audt servces
• Revew of management’s mprovements to
reportng and nternal control arrangements
• Revew of Unlever’s tax prncples
• Revew of Unlever’s major change programmes
• Revew of IT securty
• Revew of corporate rsks for whch the Audt
ommttee had oversght n 2013
• External benchmarkng of the Internal Audt
functon
• Oversee and facltate a smooth transton to the
new external audtors
• Ongong assessment of new regulatory
requrements for audt commttees wth respect
to reportng and governance
• ontnual assessment of the corporate rsks for
whch the Audt ommttee has oversght and
related mtgaton/response plans
• Revew of Unlever’s major change programmes
• Revew of non-fnancal KPIs
OMMITTEE MEMBERS AND ATTENDANE
HIHLIHTS OF 2013
PRIORITIES FOR 2014
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 Grote The composton of the
ommttee changed after the AGMs n May 2013 when both
harles Golden and Kees Storm rotated on to other commttees
and Mary Ma, Hxona Nyasulu and John Rshton joned For the
purposes of the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 Byron Grote s the
Audt ommttee’s fnancal expert There was full attendance at
all the meetngs except for John Rshton who attended three of the
four meetngs he was elgble to attend 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 Commttee meetngs (or part
thereof) were the hef Fnancal Offcer, hef Audtor, Group
Controller, Chef Legal Offcer, Group Secretary and the external
audtor Throughout the year the Comm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 of
emergng concern 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 Governance of Unlever’ whch s avalable on our
webste at wwwunlevercom/nvestorrelatons/corp_governance
The Comm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), approval
and publshng 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, qualfcatons
and ndependence, the approval process of non-audt servces,
together wth the recommendaton to the Boards of ther
nomnaton for shareholder approval;
• The performance of the nternal audt functon; and
• Approval of ULE expense polcy and revew of Executve
Drector expenses
53
Unlever Annual Report and Accounts 2013 overnance
REPORT OF THE
AUDIT COMMITTEE