Group Management Report Products Safety and Health Environment Human Resources Social Commitment Consolidated Financial Statements 99
risks of future development. In addition, the executive directors are responsible for such
arrangements and measures (systems) as they have considered necessary to enable the prepa-
ration of a group management report that is in accordance with the applicable German
legal requirements, and to be able to provide sufficient appropriate evidence for the assertions
in the group management report.
The supervisory board is responsible for overseeing the Group’s financial reporting
process for the preparation of the consolidated financial statements and of the group man-
agement report.
Auditor’s Responsibilities for the Audit of the Consolidated Financial Statements
and of the Group Management Report
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial
statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error,
and whether the group management report as a whole provides an appropriate view of the
Group’s position and, in all material respects, is consistent with the consolidated financial
statements and the knowledge obtained in the audit, complies with the German legal require-
ments and appropriately presents the opportunities and risks of future development, as
well as to issue an auditor’s report that includes our audit opinions on the consolidated finan-
cial statements and on the group management report.
Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit
conducted in accordance with § 317 HGB and in compliance with German Generally
Accepted Standards for Financial Statement Audits promulgated by the Institut der Wirtschafts-
prüfer (IDW) will always detect a material misstatement. Misstatements can arise from
fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could rea-
sonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of
these consolidated financial statements and this group management report.
We exercise professional judgment and maintain professional skepticism throughout the
audit. We also:
– identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial state-
ments and of the group management report, whether due to fraud or error, design and
perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that is suffi-
cient and appropriate to provide a basis for our audit opinions. 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.
– obtain an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit of the consolidated finan-
cial statements and of arrangements and measures (systems) relevant to the audit of
the group management report in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in
the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an audit opinion on the effec-
tiveness of these systems.
– evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies used by the executive directors and the
reasonableness of estimates made by the executive directors and related disclosures.
– conclude on the appropriateness of the executive directors’ use of the going concern basis
of accounting and, based on the audit evidence obtained, whether a material uncertainty