Other information 158 Appendix Responsibilities of the Management Board and the Supervisory Board for the financial statements Our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements Ahold at a glance Business review Governance Financials Ahold Annual Report 2014 The Management Board is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of these financial statements in accordance with EU-IFRS and with Part 9 of Book 2 of the Dutch Civil Code and for the preparation of the management report in accordance with Part 9 of Book 2 of the Dutch Civil Code. Furthermore the Management Board is responsible for such internal control as it determines is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free of material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. The Supervisory Board is responsible for overseeing the Company's financial reporting process. The objectives of our audit are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor's report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with Dutch Standards on Auditing will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements. As part of an audit in accordance with Dutch Standards on Auditing, we exercise professional judgement and maintain professional scepticism throughout the planning and performance of the audit. We also: a Identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error, design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control. a Obtain an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the entity's internal control. a Evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates and related disclosures made by management, a Evaluate the overall presentation, structure and content of the financial statements, including the disclosures, and whether the financial statements represent the underlying transactions and events in a manner that achieves fair presentation. a Obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence regarding the financial information of the Group and business activities within the Group to express an opinion on the financial statements. We are responsible for the direction, supervision and performance of the Group audit. We remain solely responsible for our audit opinion.

Jaarverslagen | 2014 | | pagina 65