Financial Statements of Waikato River Authority
for the period ended 30 June 2012
Independent Auditor’s Report
to the readers of Waikato
River Authority’s financial statements for the year ended
30 June 2012
The Auditor-General is the auditor of Waikato River Authority (the Authority). The Auditor-
General has appointed me, B H Halford, using the staff and resources of Audit New Zealand,
to carry out the audit of the financial statements of the Authority on her behalf.
We have audited the financial statements of the Authority on pages 14 to 25, that comprise
the statement of financial position as at 30 June 2012, the statement of comprehensive
income, statement of changes in equity and statement of cash flows for the year ended on
that date and notes to the financial statements that include accounting policies and other
explanatory information.
Opinion
In our opinion the financial statements of the Authority on pages 14 to 25:
. comply with generally accepted accounting practice in New Zealand; and
. fairly reflect the Authority’s:
. financial position as at 30 June 2012; and
. financial performance and cash flows for the year ended on that date.
Our audit was completed on 23 August 2012. This 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 Authority and our responsibilities and we explain our independence.
Basis of opinion
We carried out our audit in accordance with the Auditor-General’s Auditing Standards,
which incorporate the International Standards on Auditing (New Zealand). Those standards
require that we comply with ethical requirements and plan and carry out our audit to
obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free from material
misstatement.
Material misstatements are differences or omissions of amounts and disclosures that would
affect a reader’s overall understanding of the financial statements. If we had found material
misstatements that were not corrected, we would have referred to them in our opinion.
An audit involves carrying out procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and
disclosures in the financial statements. The procedures selected depend on our judgement,
including our assessment of risks of material misstatement of the financial statements,
whether due to fraud or error. In making those risk assessments we consider internal
control relevant to the preparation of the Authority’s financial statements that fairly reflect
the matters to which they relate. We consider internal control 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 Authority’s internal control.
An audit also involves evaluating:
. the appropriateness of accounting policies used and whether they have been applied
consistently;
. the reasonableness of the significant accounting estimates and judgements made by the
Authority;
. the adequacy of all disclosures in the financial statements; and
. the overall presentation of the financial statements.
Waikato River Authority
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