Independent auditor’s report to the members of Vodafone Group Plc (continued) 134 Vodafone Group Plc Annual Report 2024 Strategic report Governance Financials
Other information
– We understood how the Group is complying with those frameworks by making enquiries of management, internal audit, those responsible for legal and compliance procedures and the Company Secretary. We supplemented our enquiries through our review of board minutes and papers provided to the Audit and Risk Committee, correspondence received from regulatory bodies and attendance at all meetings of the Audit and Risk Committee, as well as consideration of the results of our audit procedures across the Group, including our testing of entity level and group-wide controls. – We assessed the susceptibility of the Group’s financial statements to material misstatement, including how fraud might occur, by meeting with management from various parts of the Group, including management and finance teams of the local markets designated as full, specific and specified procedures scope locations, Head Office, the Audit and Risk Committee, the Group Internal Audit function, the Group Legal function and individuals in the fraud and compliance department, to understand where it considered there was susceptibility to fraud; and assessing whistleblowing logs and associated incidences for those with a potential financial reporting impact. We also considered performance targets and their propensity to influence efforts made by management to manage earnings or influence the perceptions of analysts. We considered the programmes and controls that the Group has established to address risks identified, or that otherwise prevent, deter and detect fraud, and how senior management monitors those programmes and controls. – Based on this understanding we designed our audit procedures to identify non-compliance with such laws and regulations or fraudulent financial reporting, where the impact on the financial statements of such non-compliance or fraudulent financial reporting could be material. These procedures included, where necessary, the use of forensic and other relevant specialists. Our procedures involved enquiries of management at Head Office, the Audit and Risk Committee, the Group Internal Audit function, the Group legal function, the Group Corporate Security team, individuals in the fraud and compliance department (including those responsible for fraud investigation and whistleblowing). We also performed journal entry testing, with a focus on manual consolidation journals, journals indicating large or unusual transactions and journals with key words that could indicate management override, based on our understanding of the business; and challenging the assumptions and judgements made by management in respect of significant one-off transactions in the financial year and significant accounting estimates, as referred to in the key audit matters section above. At a component level, our full and specified procedure scope component audit teams’ procedures included enquiries of component management; journal entry testing; and testing in respect of the key audit matter of revenue recognition. We also leveraged our data analytics capabilities in performing work on the purchase to pay process and fixed asset balances and leases, to assist in identifying higher risk transactions and balances, for testing. We also used EY’s Document Authenticity Tool to analyse certain electronic documents used as audit evidence, to identify characteristics of documents that can be indicators of alteration or inauthenticity.
– Where the risk of fraud, including the risk of management override, was considered to be higher, including areas impacting Group key performance indicators or management remuneration, we performed audit procedures to address each identified material fraud risk or other risk of material misstatement. These procedures included those on revenue recognition referred to in the key audit matters section above and testing journal entries that we judged to be of higher risk and were designed to provide reasonable assurance that the financial statements were free from material fraud or error. A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at https://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report. Other matters we are required to address – Following the recommendation from the Audit & Risk Committee, we were appointed by the Parent company on 9 May 2023 to audit the financial statements for the year ending 31 March 2023 and subsequent financial periods. – The period of total uninterrupted engagement including previous renewals and reappointments is five years, covering the years ending 31 March 2020 to 31 March 2024. – The audit opinion is consistent with the additional report to the Audit & Risk Committee. Use of our report This report is made solely to the company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the company’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the company and the company’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
Alison Duncan (Senior statutory auditor) for and on behalf of Ernst & Young LLP, Statutory Auditor London 14 May 2024
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