Audit firm auditing the financial statements
On 23 May 2019 KNF gave a permit to PZU to extend for another two years the maximum period for the engagement for KPMG Audyt to audit the standalone and consolidated financial statements. In this manner, the Supervisory Board made the decision to continue cooperation with the auditor to audit the 2019-2020 financial statements.
The scope of the concluded agreement encompasses the following in particular:
- auditing PZU’s annual standalone financial statements and the PZU Group’s annual consolidated financial statements;
- reviewing PZU’s interim standalone financial statements and the PZU Group’s interim consolidated financial statements.
The Act of 31 March 2020 Amending the Act on Special Solutions Associated with Preventing, Counteracting and Combating COVID-19, Other Infectious Diseases and Crises Caused by Them and Certain Other Acts (known as the Special Act) repealed the provision of the Act on Statutory Auditors according to which “the maximum permissible uninterrupted duration of the statutory audit engagements referred to in Article 17(1) second paragraph of Regulation No 537/2014, performed by the same audit firm or an audit firm associated with this audit firm or any member of a network operating in the European Union states of which these firms are members may not exceed 5 years.” The Special Act introduced similar amendments to the Accounting Act.
As a consequence, the maximum permissible uninterrupted duration of the statutory audit engagements for an audit firm will be a period of 10 years, as specified in Article 17(1) second paragraph of Regulation (EU) No 537/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
On this basis, the Supervisory Board decided to renew, for 2021-2022, with an option to extend until 2023, and subsequently to exercise the option and extend until 2023 the orders for KPMG Audyt to review and audit the standalone financial statements of PZU and the consolidated financial statements of the PZU Group. The recommendation on the selection of an audit firm to conduct the audit satisfied the applicable terms.
In 2021, the audit firm auditing the financial statements rendered permitted non-audit services to PZU, which was approved, following an assessment of the company’s independence, by the Audit Committee.
In recent years, PZU’s additional cooperation with KPMG Audyt has covered, without limitation, audits of solvency and financial standing reports required by the Solvency II Directive.
| Fee payable to the audit firm auditing PZU’s financial statements (PLN 000s) | 1 January – 31 December 2020 |
1 January – 31 December 2021 |
| compulsory audit of the annual financial statements / consolidated financial statements | 945 | 994 |
| other assurance services, including a review of financial statements/consolidated financial statements | 939 | 988 |
| tax advisory services | - | - |
| other services | - | - |
| Total | 1 884 | 1 982 |
| Fee charged by the entity authorized to audit the PZU Group’s financial statements (PLN 000s) | 1 January – 31 December 2020 | 1 January – 31 December 2021 |
| audit of financial statements | 8 698 | 9 345 |
| other assurance services | 4 901 | 5 718 |
| Total | 13 599 | 15 063 |
Main assumptions underlying the policy for selecting the audit firm
The following are among the main assumptions underlying PZU’s policy for selecting the audit firm:
- ensuring that the process of selecting the audit firm is done correctly and determining the responsibility and the duties of the participants in this process;
- analyzing when selecting the audit firm the recommendations given by the Audit Committee;
- giving consideration to the rule of rotating the audit firm and the key statutory auditor in the embraced time horizon.
The main objectives of the policy for the provision of permitted non-audit services by the audit firm conducting the statutory audit, its related entities and by a member of the audit firm’s network were as follows:
- ensuring correctness in the process of procuring permitted services;
- determining the responsibility and the duties of the participants in this process;
- defining the catalogue of permitted services;
- establishing the procedure for procuring permitted services.