FINANCIAL REPORTING
• Operational processes for inputting accounts
All processes paying into the accounts are the subject of specific procedures, follow-ups, rules of validation, authorisation and accounting defined and stated by the Corporate Accounts Division (particularly for sales, purchasing, management of assets and cash flow, etc.).
• Account closures, consolidation and management reports The closure process of corporate accounts and consolidated financial accounts is outlined in the instructions found in the book of accounting procedures and consolidation manual. The process is based on a detailed calendar, which has been shared with all consolidated companies so as to ensure that deadlines are met and that the preparation of financial statements is coordinated, with the expected level of quality.
To support the accounts department, the management control branch contributes to the account closure process as part of a data consistency check.
In addition, managers in operational units, in some functional units and in consolidated companies sign an engagement letter to confirm the correctness of the accounting information they communicate relating to their area of responsibility.
• Financial communication
As an issuer of regulated information, the finances et strategy Division exerts control over the development and publication of all communications of a financial nature. Alongside the Legal Affairs and Insurance Division, the division is responsible for authorising any type of memo or press release containing “sensitive information”, that is, any information of a financial or legal nature, or with financial or legal implications, and/or information likely to influence the Aéroports de Paris share price.
Appendix 2 : Report by the Chairman of the Board of Directors on the composition of the Board and the application of gender equality in it, the conditions for preparing and organising its work and the internal control and risk management procedures put in
the second concerns the Group’s financial memos or press releases.
An annual calendar of the Group’s main periodical commitments in terms of accounting, financial and share-holder memos, was created by the Legal Affairs and Insurance Division and shared internally.
While, today, the main channel for disseminating privileged financial information by Aéroports de Paris is their website (www.aeroportsdeparis.fr), the Group also envisages using one or more social media in addition (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) in compliance with AMF recommendation no. 2014-151. An update of the procedure on the Aéroports de Paris group's communication is under way in order to control these new practices.
3.7 Periodic monitoring mechanism
The surveillance of the internal control and risk management mechanisms, allowing for continuous improvement, is ensured by the Corporate Audit Division and by external structures such as auditors and other relevant bodies, particularly State services.
3.7.1 Corporate Audit and Internal Control Division
The Corporate Audit Division has the task in complete independence of providing the company and the Group with reasonable assurance on the degree of control over its operations, their compliance with the laws and the internal procedures set in place, observation of strategic guidelines and instructions of the general management, and the reliability of financial information. As part of its mission, it ensures that the important risks (operational, financial or compliance) are taken into account in an appropriate way and that all conditions are brought together to secure, give increased reliability to and develop the business activity of the Group. In this regard, it maintains close relations with the Airport Security, Risk Management and Compliance Division.
Within the company’s hierarchy, the Corporate Audit Division is attached to the Chairman & CEO, and reports to the audit and risks committee. The Audit Director affirmed at the meeting of the Audit and Risks Committee on 15 October 2014, that she had performed her audit work entirely independently. Moreover, the department works alongside the auditors and the two meet regularly.
The division undertakes interventions in all areas of activity within the company and its subsidiaries. It institutes the annual audit programme as authorised by the Executive Committee and presented to the audit and risks committee. As a member of IFACI (the French Institute for Audit and Internal Control), it operates in accordance with international professional guidelines.
The assignments, powers and responsibilities of the internal audit are laid out in the Group’s internal audit charter, to which the auditor’s Code of Conduct is attached. It was revised in 2014 in order to take into account the division being refocused on the audit function alone after internal control was attached to the Airport Security, Risk Management & Compliance Division in October 2013. The advisory activity is further described in the internal audit assignments and is the
1 Communication from listed companies on their website and on social media – DOC – 2014-15
subject of a specific procedure integrated into the Aéroports de Paris audit reference base. Lastly, the organisation of audits conducted within the Group is specified in it, particularly in joint companies.
IFACI certification, obtained by the Audit Division in 2008, was renewed in 2014 without any non-compliance.
The division reports on the follow-up to action plans resulting from the recommendations of internal audits and, since 2014, of external audits (audits conducted by statutory auditors and audits cover IS security, safety, airport security; apart from external audits of management systems) biannually to ExCom and annually to the audit and risks committee. Such reporting states the linking of recommendations to the risks of Group risk mapping or to the risk areas listed in the risk environment drawn up by the Airport Security, Risk Management &
Compliance Division.
Forming part of a quality procedure, the Corporate Audit Division sends an evaluation questionnaire to the persons responsible for the audited bodies with regard to the audit missions, so as to gather points on which it could improve its activity. In addition, a wide-ranging perception survey was carried out in 2014 with Aéroports de Paris company directors and a sample group of some forty Group auditees with a view to assessing the level of satisfaction in view of their expectations and of the audit process.
3.7.2 External control structures
In the first instance this relates to the statutory auditors appointed by the General Meeting on 28th May 2009: Ernst & Young et Autres and KPMG SA.
Moreover, Aéroports de Paris is subject to specific controls due to its being a majority State-owned company. The Court of Auditors, the Economic Affairs Committee of the National Assembly and the Senate, the State Economic and Financial verification mission, and the Council on the Environment and sustainable development, in particular, are therefore responsible for overseeing the finance, management and internal control sectors.
The company is also subject to controls of an operational nature which are carried out by the French Civil Aviation Authority and by the European Commission in the context of compliance with regulations and with inspections of an organisational nature by external bodies, approved certifiers, in the context of obtaining management-systems certification.
Finally, it is also subject to assessments by credit rating agencies, mentioned in the 2014 Management Report - Chapter 3 - Risks and
Risk Management
Appendix 2 : Report by the Chairman of the Board of Directors on the composition of the Board and the application of gender equality in it, the conditions for preparing and organising its work and the internal control and risk management procedures put in
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Appendix 3: Methodological note on social, societal and environmental reporting
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7.3 Appendix 3: Methodological note on social, societal and environmental reporting
Aéroports de Paris social, societal and environmental reporting is based on:
the reporting system described in Articles L. 225-102-1 and R. 225-104 to R. 225-105 of the French Commercial Code;
and the transparency principles of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI 3.1), the international reference in terms of sustainable development reporting in line with the ISO 26000 standard on the social responsibility of organisations.
The 2014 social reporting period is based on a calendar year (1 January to 31 December 2014) to ensure consistency with French regulations and the social reporting of French companies.
Environmental data reporting is based on a period running from October of year N-1 to end of September of year N (except for CO2 emissions from plants, which continue to be reported by calendar year).
Scope
The scope of the reporting is intended to be representative of the significant activities of the Group.