Governance and control
A continuous process
Business planning starts with the Management Group’s strategy days in the spring and concludes with the Board of Directors deciding on the plan at its December meeting. In between, business plans are developed for both underlying units and for the company as a whole. The plans formulate both short- and long-term financial, environmental and societal goals. The business plan is thereafter monitored continually during the subsequent year.
A risk inventory and risk assessment are conducted every year prior to business planning. The material risks identified are managed in the business plans for the units. The work on risk management is described in more detail in the Annual Report. A framework of guidelines, policies and instructions established by the Board of Directors and the CEO govern the organisation and its employees. The framework is to be followed by all employees, and monitoring is conducted on a regular basis. Responsibility for follow-up has been assigned to a separate steering group that has been appointed by the CEO and which comprises the CEO, the General Counsel, the CFO and the Head of Group Controlling. The steering group is also responsible for ongoing evaluation of the work with governance, internal control and risk. This takes place in close collaboration with the Audit Committee, which is responsible for risk work, and internal control is continually tested and evaluated. Since existing structures for evaluation and monitoring have so far been deemed sufficient to provide a basis for evaluation by the Board, no separate unit for internal auditing has been established. The decision is, however, taken up annually for re-examination.
Internal control of financial reporting
The Board issues a report that describes how internal control of the financial reporting is organised. The report contains no statements on how well internal control functioned during the past financial year, and it has not been audited by the company’s auditors.
The full Board report on internal control pertaining to the financial reporting for 2019 is available in Vasakronan’s 2019 Annual Report.
Financial statements