Siemens 2009 Annual Report Download - page 298

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 Reports Supervisory Board /
Managing Board  Corporate Governance  Management’s discussion and analysis  Consolidated Financial Statements
 Consolidated Statements of Income  Consolidated Statements of Income
and Expense Recognized in Equity
 Consolidated Balance Sheets  Consolidated Statements of Cash Flow
Audit services:
▪ Annual audit of Siemens’ Consolidated Financial State-
ments and its internal control over financial reporting
▪ Quarterly review of Siemens’ interim consolidated financial
statements
▪ Audit and review services that are required by statute or
regulation, including statutory audits of financial state-
ments of Siemens AG and of its subsidiaries under the rules
of their respective countries
▪ Opening balance sheet audits in connection with acquisi-
tions, including audits with regard to the allocation of pur-
chase prices.
Audit-related Services:
▪ Due diligence relating to actual or contemplated acquisi-
tions and carve-outs, including consultation in accounting
matters
▪ Post-closing audits
▪ Carve-out audits and attestation services in the context of
carve-outs
▪ Consultation concerning financial accounting and report-
ing standards based on the auditor’s knowledge of
Siemens-specific circumstances, including:
▪ Accounting advice relating to actual or contemplated
transactions or events
▪ Advice on the introduction and review of new or revised
accounting guidelines and requirements
▪ Training regarding accounting-related topics
▪ Comfort letters
▪ Employee benefit plan audits
▪ SAS 70 reports
Audit fees and audit-related fees consist of fees associated
with the services pre-approved by the Audit Committee de-
scribed below. Tax fees include primarily fees for support ser-
vices provided in connection with the documentation of trans-
fer pricing arrangements and fees for transition services which
were started prior to the appointment of E&Y and, starting De-
cember 2008, require specific pre-approval by the Audit Com-
mittee.
Audit Committee pre-approval policies:
In accordance with German law, Siemens’ independent auditor
is appointed by the Annual Shareholders’ Meeting based on a
recommendation of the Supervisory Board. The Audit Commit-
tee of the Supervisory Board prepares the board’s recommen-
dation on the election of the Company ’s independent auditor.
Subsequent to the auditor’s appointment, the Audit Commit-
tee engages the auditor and in its sole authority approves the
terms and scope of the audit and all audit engagement fees. In
addition, it monitors the auditor’s independence.
In order to ensure the integrity of independent audits,
Siemens’ Audit Committee has established a policy to approve
all audit and permissible audit-related services provided by our
independent auditor prior to the auditor’s engagement. As
part of this approval process, the Audit Committee adopted
pre-approval policies and procedures pursuant to which the
Audit Committee annually pre-approves certain types of ser-
vices to be performed by Siemens’ independent auditor. Under
the policies, the Company ’s independent auditor is not al-
lowed to perform any non-audit services which may impair the
auditor’s independence under the rules of the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Public Company Ac-
counting Oversight Board. Furthermore, the Audit Committee
has limited the sum total of all audit-related fees incurred dur-
ing a fiscal year to a maximum of 40% of the audit fees agreed
upon for the respective fiscal year.
In fiscal 2009, the Audit Committee has pre-approved the per-
formance by E&Y of the following audit and audit-related ser-
vices: