Appendix to the auditor's report
We have maintained professional scepticism throughout the audit and exercised professional judgement where necessary, in accordance with the Dutch auditing standards, the OCW Education Audit Protocol 2021, as well as ethical and independence requirements. Our audit included the following elements:
-
identifying and assessing the risks
-
-
that the financial statements contained material misstatements as a result of errors or fraud,
-
and of the illegitimate recognition of income and expenses as well as balance sheet transactions that are of material importance;
-
-
determining and performing audit activities in response to these risks, and obtaining audit information that is sufficient and suitable to serve as a basis for our judgement. In case of fraud, the risk of a material misstatement not being discovered is greater than with errors. In case of fraud, there may be a question of collusion, forgery, the intentional omission of payment records, the intentional misrepresentation of events, or the circumvention of internal control;
-
obtaining insight into the internal controls relevant to the audit in order to select audit procedures which are appropriate in the circumstances. These procedures are not intended to express an opinion on the effectiveness of the educational institution’s internal controls;
-
evaluating the appropriateness of the accounting principles used, the financial legitimacy criteria used and the reasonableness of the estimates made by the Executive Board and the related explanatory notes in the financial statements;
-
concluding that the continuity assumption used by the Executive Board is acceptable. This includes determining, on the basis of the obtained audit information, whether events and circumstances have taken place that may cast significant doubt on the educational institution’s ability to maintain continuity in its activities. If we conclude that there is a material uncertainty, we are obliged to draw attention in our auditor’s report to the relevant explanatory notes in the financial statements. If the notes are inadequate, we are required to modify our report. Our conclusions are based on the audit evidence obtained up to the date of our auditor’s report. However, future events or conditions may prevent an institution from maintaining its continuity;
-
evaluating the presentation, structure and content of the financial statements and included notes; and
-
evaluating whether the financial statements provide a true and fair representation of the underlying transactions and events, and whether the income and expenses stated in these financial statements as well as the balance sheet transactions in all material aspects have come about lawfully.
Because we are ultimately responsible for our opinion, we are also responsible for directing, supervising and performing the group audit. In this respect, we have determined the nature and extent of the audit procedures to be carried out for the group entities. The decisive characteristics were the size and/or risk profile of the group entities or operations. Based on this, we have selected those group entities that required an audit or evaluation of the full financial information or specific items.
We communicate with the Supervisory Board on various topics, including the planned scope and timing of the audit, as well as significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies in internal control.
Based on all the matters we discussed with the Supervisory Board, we identify the key matters of our audit of the financial statements. We describe these key audit matters in our auditor’s report, unless laws or regulations preclude public disclosure or when, in extremely rare circumstances, not communicating the matter is in the public interest.
