Publications
Annual Report
2003-2004
Report of the Auditor General
The Auditor-General is the auditor of the Earthquake Commission (the Commission). The Auditor-General has appointed me, H C Lim, using the staff and resources of Audit New Zealand, to carry out the audit of the fi nancial statements of the Commission on his behalf, for the year ended 30 June 2004.
Unqualified opinion
In our opinion the financial statements of the Commission on pages 24 to 38:
- comply with generally accepted accounting practice in New Zealand; and
- fairly reflect:
- the Commission’s financial position as at 30 June 2004; and
- the results of its operations and cash flows for the year ended on that date.
The audit was completed on 28 October 2004, and is the date at which our opinion is expressed.
The basis of the 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 our 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 the opinion.
Our 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 the 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 Commission as at 30 June 2004. 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 the 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 Section 43(1) of 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 processes, which are compatible with those independence requirements. Other than the audit and these assignments, we have no relationship with or interests in the Commission.
H C Lim
Audit New Zealand
On behalf of the Auditor-General
Wellington, New Zealand