Assurance report

What is assurance?

Assurance of information produced by an organisation’s management, generally means enhancing the degree of confidence of the intended users. Enhanced confidence is obtained from the outcome of an evaluation of the quality of such subject matter against criteria, by an independent third party practitioner.

The outcome of an assurance exercise is an ‘assurance statement’ containing a conclusion on the quality of the subject matter.

AngloGold Ashanti appointed a team of non-financial assurance practitioners, whose qualifications and practical experience cover the breadth of corporate sustainability issues in the environmental, social and economic spheres, to undertake this independent third party assurance role.

The assurance conclusion was based on a test of the reliability of the performance information by way of:

• conducting interviews and holding discussions with management, key personnel and/or stakeholders of AngloGold Ashanti and assessing data trends;
• obtaining an understanding of the systems used to generate, aggregate and report the performance information;
• conducting site visits on a sample basis to test systems and data where necessary;
• assessing the completeness, accuracy, existence and validity of the performance information on a sample basis;
• reviewing and analysing collected information and effecting re-calculations where considered appropriate; and
• applying suitable audit criteria as relevant to the subject matter reported

What users of the Report to Society see, in the form of the Assurance Statement issued by the third party, is the proverbial tip of the iceberg in the assurance process. What AngloGold Ashanti further benefits from, is a resulting internal management report with detailed observations made during the engagement, related to management and control issues, highlighting areas of particular concern or potential improvement. During the assurance exercise there has been ongoing dialogue between AngloGold Ashanti and the assurers at various levels, related to best practice and efficiency of controls, further contributing to staff awareness of material sustainability issues for the company.

The added value experienced by Anglogold Ashanti in the assurance of the Report to Society can be summarised as follows:

• Management comfort
• Comfort that existing management systems and controls are functioning
• Comfort that decisions and disclosures are based on reliable information
• Learning and improvement
• Observations allowing for management to improve reporting processes and systems
• Encouraging current best practice to drive continuous improvement Risk management
• A reduction in the risk of material mis-statements
• An improvement in overall risk management with particular focus on non-financial issues
• Trust and credibility
• Increased transparency and accountability helping to build trust and a positive reputation with all our stakeholders