Annual Report for the year ended 30 June 2011

AUDIT REPORT

To the readers of
the Takeovers Panel's
financial statements and statement of service performance
for the year ended 30 June 2011

The Auditor General is the auditor of the Takeovers Panel (the Panel). The Auditor General has appointed me, Clare Helm, using the staff and resources of Audit New Zealand, to carry out the audit on her behalf. The audit covers the financial statements and statement of service performance included in the annual report of the Panel for the year ended 30 June 2011.

Unmodified opinion

In our opinion:

  • The financial statements of the Panel comprising Statement of comprehensive income, Statement of changes in equity, Statement of financial position, Statement of cash flows and notes to the financial statements:
    • comply with generally accepted accounting practice in New Zealand; and
    • fairly reflect:
      • the Panel's financial position as at 30 June 2011; and
      • the results of its operations and cash flows for the year ended on that date.
  • The statement of service performance of the Panel:
    • complies with generally accepted accounting practice in New Zealand; and
    • fairly reflects for each class of outputs:
      • its standards of delivery performance achieved, as compared with the forecast standards outlined in the statement of forecast service performance adopted at the start of the financial year; and
      • its actual revenue earned and output expenses incurred, as compared with the forecast revenues and output expenses outlined in the statement of forecast service performance adopted at the start of the financial year.

The audit was completed on 23 August 2011, 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 Members of the Panel 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 and statement of service performance 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 and statement of service performance. 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 and statement of service performance. 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 Members of the Panel;
  • confirming year-end balances;
  • determining whether accounting policies are appropriate and consistently applied; and
  • determining whether all financial statement and statement of service performance disclosures are adequate.

We did not examine every transaction, nor do we guarantee complete accuracy of the financial statements and statement of service performance.

We evaluated the overall adequacy of the presentation of information in the financial statements and statement of service performance. We obtained all the information and explanations we required to support our opinion above.

Responsibilities of the Members of the Panel and the Auditor

The Members of the Panel are responsible for preparing the financial statements and statement of service performance in accordance with generally accepted accounting practice in New Zealand. The financial statements must fairly reflect the financial position of the Panel as at 30 June 2011 and the results of its operations and cash flows for the year ended on that date. The statement of service performance must fairly reflect, for each class of outputs, the Panel's standards of delivery performance achieved and revenue earned and expenses incurred, as compared with the forecast standards, revenue and expenses adopted at the start of the financial year. The Members of the Panel's responsibilities arise from the Crown Entities Act 2004.

We are responsible for expressing an independent opinion on the financial statements and statement of service performance and reporting that opinion to you. This responsibility arises from section 15 of the Public Audit Act 2001 and the Crown Entities Act 2004.

Independence

When carrying out the audit we followed the independence requirements of the Auditor General, which incorporate the independence requirements of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Other than the audit, we have not provided any engagements for the Panel during the year ended 30 June 2011. In addition, we have no relationships with, or interests in, the Panel.

Clare Helm
Audit New Zealand
On behalf of the Auditor General
Wellington, New Zealand

Matters relating to the electronic presentation of the audited financial statements and statement of service performance

This audit report relates to the financial statements and statement of service performance of the Takeovers Panel for the year ended 30 June 2011 included on the Takeovers Panel's website. The Members of the Panel are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the Takeovers Panel's website. We have not been engaged to report on the integrity of the Takeovers Panel's website. We accept no responsibility for any changes that may have occurred to the financial statements and statement of service performance since they were initially presented on the website.

The audit report refers only to the financial statements and statement of performance named above. It does not provide an opinion on any other information which may have been hyperlinked to or from the financial statements and statement of service performance. 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 statement of service performance as well as the related audit report dated 23 August 2011 to confirm the information included in the audited financial statements and statement of service performance presented on this website.

Legislation in New Zealand governing the preparation and dissemination of financial information may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.