Publications
Annual Report
Audit report to the Readers of the Earthquake Commission Financial Statements for the Year Ended 30 June 2006
The Auditor-General is the auditor of the Earthquake Commission. The Auditor.General has appointed me, Tony Uttley, using the staff and resources of Audit New Zealand, to carry out the audit of the financial statements of the Earthquake Commission, on his behalf, for the year ended 30 June 2006.
Unqualified Opinion
In our opinion the financial statements of the Earthquake Commission on pages 26 to 42:
- comply with generally accepted accounting practice in New Zealand; and
- fairly reflect:
- the Earthquake Commission’s financial position as at 30 June 2006; and
- the results of its operations and cash flows for the year ended on that date.
The audit was completed on 27 October 2006, and is the date at which our opinion is expressed.
The basis of our opinion is explained below. In addition, we outline the responsibilities of the Board and the Auditor, and explain our independence
.Basis of Opinion
We carried out the audit in accordance with the Auditor- General’s Auditing Standards, which incorporate the New Zealand Auditing Standards.
We planned and performed the audit to obtain all the information and explanations we considered necessary in order to obtain reasonable assurance that the financial statements did not have material misstatements, whether caused by fraud or error.
Material misstatements are differences or omissions of amounts and disclosures that would affect a reader’s overall understanding of the financial statements. If we had found material misstatements that were not corrected, we would have referred to them in our opinion.
The audit involved performing procedures to test the information presented in the financial statements. We assessed the results of those procedures in forming our opinion.
Audit procedures generally include:
- determining whether significant financial and management controls are working and can be relied on to produce complete and accurate data;
- verifying samples of transactions and account balances;
- performing analyses to identify anomalies in the reported data;
- reviewing significant estimates and judgements made by the Board;
- confirming year-end balances;
- determining whether accounting policies are appropriate and consistently applied; and
- determining whether all financial statement disclosures are adequate.
We did not examine every transaction, nor do we guarantee complete accuracy of the financial statements.
We evaluated the overall adequacy of the presentation of information in the financial statements. We obtained all the information and explanations we required to support our opinion above.
Responsibilities of the Board and the Auditor
The Board is responsible for preparing financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting practice in New Zealand. Those financial statements must fairly reflect the financial position of the Earthquake Commission as at 30 June 2006. They must also fairly reflect the results of its operations and cash flows for the year ended on that date. The Board’s responsibilities arise from the Public Finance Act 1989 and Earthquake Commission Act 1993.
We are responsible for expressing an independent opinion on the financial statements and reporting that opinion to you. This responsibility arises from section 15 of the Public Audit Act 2001 and the Public Finance Act 1989.
Independence
When carrying out the audit we followed the independence requirements of the Auditor.General, which incorporate the independence requirements of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand.
In addition to the audit, we have carried out assurance related assignments in the area of quality assurance over Catastrophe Response, which are compatible with those independence requirements. Other than the audit and these assignments, we have no relationship with or interests in the Earthquake Commission.
Tony Utley
Audit New Zealand
On behalf of the Auditor-General
Wellington, New Zealand
Matters relating to the electronic presentation of the audited financial statements
This audit report relates to the financial statements of the Earthquake Commission for the year ended 30 June 2006 included on the Earthquake Commission’s web site. The Earthquake Commission’s Board is responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the Earthquake Commission’s web site. We have not been engaged to report on the integrity of the Earthquake Commission’s web site. We accept no responsibility for any changes that may have occurred to the financial statements since they were initially presented on the web site.
The audit report refers only to the financial statements named above. It does not provide an opinion on any other information which may have been hyperlinked to/from these financial statements. If readers of this report are concerned with the inherent risks arising from electronic data communication they should refer to the published hard copy of the audited financial statements and related audit report dated 27 October 2006 to confirm the information included in the audited financial statements presented on this web site.
Legislation in New Zealand governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.