Article 11
Additional report to the audit committee
1.
Statutory auditors or audit firms carrying out statutory audits of public-interest entities shall submit an additional report to the audit committee of the audited entity not later than the date of submission of the audit report referred to in Article 10. Member States may additionally require that this additional report be submitted to the administrative or supervisory body of the audited entity.
If the audited entity does not have an audit committee, the additional report shall be submitted to the body performing equivalent functions within the audited entity. Member States may allow the audit committee to disclose that additional report to such third parties as are provided for in their national law.
2.
The additional report to the audit committee shall be in writing. It shall explain the results of the statutory audit carried out and shall at least:
(a)
include the declaration of independence referred to in point (a) of Article 6(2);
(b)
where the statutory audit was carried out by an audit firm, the report shall identify each key audit partner involved in the audit;
(c)
where the statutory auditor or the audit firm has made arrangements for any of his, her or its activities to be conducted by another statutory auditor or audit firm that is not a member of the same network, or has used the work of external experts, the report shall indicate that fact and shall confirm that the statutory auditor or the audit firm received a confirmation from the other statutory auditor or audit firm and/or the external expert regarding their independence;
(d)
describe the nature, frequency and extent of communication with the audit committee or the body performing equivalent functions within the audited entity, the management body and the administrative or supervisory body of the audited entity, including the dates of meetings with those bodies;
(e)
include a description of the scope and timing of the audit;
(f)
where more than one statutory auditor or audit firm have been appointed, describe the distribution of tasks among the statutory auditors and/or the audit firms;
(g)
describe the methodology used, including which categories of the balance sheet have been directly verified and which categories have been verified based on system and compliance testing, including an explanation of any substantial variation in the weighting of system and compliance testing when compared to the previous year, even if the previous year's statutory audit was carried out by other statutory auditor(s) or audit firm(s);
(h)
disclose the quantitative level of materiality applied to perform the statutory audit for the financial statements as a whole and where applicable the materiality level or levels for particular classes of transactions, account balances or disclosures, and disclose the qualitative factors which were considered when setting the level of materiality;
(i)
report and explain judgements about events or conditions identified in the course of the audit that may cast significant doubt on the entity's ability to continue as a going concern and whether they constitute a material uncertainty, and provide a summary of all guarantees, comfort letters, undertakings of public intervention and other support measures that have been taken into account when making a going concern assessment;
(j)
report on any significant deficiencies in the audited entity's or, in the case of consolidated financial statements, the parent undertaking's internal financial control system, and/or in the accounting system. For each such significant deficiency, the additional report shall state whether or not the deficiency in question has been resolved by the management;
(k)
report any significant matters involving actual or suspected non-compliance with laws and regulations or articles of association which were identified in the course of the audit, in so far as they are considered to be relevant in order to enable the audit committee to fulfil its tasks;
(l)
report and assess the valuation methods applied to the various items in the annual or consolidated financial statements including any impact of changes of such methods;
(m)
in the case of a statutory audit of consolidated financial statements, explain the scope of consolidation and the exclusion criteria applied by the audited entity to the non-consolidated entities, if any, and whether those criteria applied are in accordance with the financial reporting framework;
(n)
where applicable, identify any audit work performed by third-country auditor(s), statutory auditor(s), third-country audit entity(ies) or audit firm(s) in relation to a statutory audit of consolidated financial statements other than by members of the same network as to which the auditor of the consolidated financial statements belongs;
(o)
indicate whether all requested explanations and documents were provided by the audited entity;
(p)
report:
(i)
any significant difficulties encountered in the course of the statutory audit;
(ii)
any significant matters arising from the statutory audit that were discussed or were the subject of correspondence with management; and
(iii)
any other matters arising from the statutory audit that in the auditor's professional judgement, are significant to the oversight of the financial reporting process.
Member States may lay down additional requirements in relation to the content of the additional report to the audit committee.
Upon request by a statutory auditor, an audit firm or the audit committee, the statutory auditor(s) or the audit firm(s) shall discuss key matters arising from the statutory audit, referred to in the additional report to the audit committee, and in particular in point (j) of the first subparagraph, with the audit committee, administrative body or, where applicable, supervisory body of the audited entity.
3.
Where more than one statutory auditor or audit firm have been engaged simultaneously, and any disagreement has arisen between them on auditing procedures, accounting rules or any other issue regarding the conduct of the statutory audit, the reasons for such disagreement shall be explained in the additional report to the audit committee.
4.
The additional report to the audit committee shall be signed and dated. Where an audit firm carries out the statutory audit, the additional report to the audit committee shall be signed by the statutory auditors carrying out the statutory audit on behalf of the audit firm.
5.
Upon request, and in accordance with national law, the statutory auditors or the audit firms shall make available without delay the additional report to the competent authorities within the meaning of Article 20(1).