118 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE AUDIT AND CONTROL COMMITTEE OF
NH HOTEL GROUP, S.A.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers was appointed as auditor of the Dutch, Belgian and Swiss companies in 1998, of the Austrian companies in 2004 and
of a Luxembourg company in 2009, having been replaced in this role by Deloitte in 2011.
NH’s Portuguese companies are audited by Batista da Costa & Associados; the US subsidiary by Mc Gladrey & Pullen, LLP; Sotocaribe, S.L. by
Ernst & Young; and the Hungarian company by Mazars. The total fees for the auditing services provided in financial year 2014 by all these auditing
firms amounted to €60,000 (compared with €70,000 in 2013).
The Audit Committee received information about issues that could have jeopardised the independence of the auditors and, after carefully
reviewing this information, issued a report expressing its opinion regarding their independence and the provision of additional services other
than auditing.
4) Contents and Results of the Audit Committee’s Work
The Audit Committee held seven meetings in 2014, which covered the following matters:
a) Analysis and assessment, along with the external auditors, of the Financial Statements and the Annual Reports for 2013, ensuring that the
auditing opinion was issued under conditions of absolute independence.
b) Review of the information relating to any issues that might jeopardise the independence of the auditors. Issue of the report on the
independence of the auditors.
c) Review of the 2014 periodic financial reporting prior to its analysis and approval by the Board of Directors in order to ensure that said
reporting is reliable, transparent and drawn up using consistent accounting standards and principles.
d) Approval of External Auditor fees for the 2014 Audit
e) Approval of the hiring of the Internal Audit manager
f) Approval of the Internal Audit procedure rules
g) Supervision of the Internal Audit strategy
h) Monitoring of the Internal Audit Plan for 2014, including an examination of its conclusions and the implementation of any necessary
corrective measures.
i) Approval of improvements introduced for improving the Company’s Corporate Governance: New Internal Conduct Regulations, Conflict of
Interest procedures and Criminal Risk Prevention models
j) Supervision of tasks completed by the Compliance Committee
k) Monitoring the most significant projects carried out by the internal auditing team.
l) Supervision of the updating of the Group’s Risk Map.
m) Supervision of the risks related to the Financial Information Control System.
n) Examination of the Annual Corporate Governance Report prior to its submission to the Board of Directors for analysis and approval,
placing special emphasis on analysing how the situations of directors and executives had been recorded.
o) Analysis of related-party transactions in order to verify that they had been performed under market conditions, as was the case.
p) Participation in training sessions: new auditing legislation and its impact on the NH Group’s External Audits and Pricing Models.
