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Independent Auditor’s Report

To: the Managing Director and the Supervisory Board of Stichting War Child

Report on the accompanying financial statements in the annual report

Our opinion

We have audited the financial statements 2018 of Stichting War Child, based in Amsterdam. In our opinion the accompanying financial statements give a true and fair view of the financial position of Stichting War Child as at 31 December 2018, and of its result for 2018 in accordance with the Guideline for annual reporting 650 ‘Fundraising organizations’ of the Dutch Accounting Standards Board.

The financial statements comprise:

    1. the balance sheet as at 31 December 2018;

    2. the statement of income and expenses for 2018; and

    3. the notes comprising a summary of the accounting policies and other explanatory information.

Basis for our opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with Dutch law, including the Dutch Standards on Auditing. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the ‘Our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements’ section of our report.

We are independent of Stichting War Child in accordance with the ‘Verordening inzake de onafhankelijkheid van accountants bij assurance-opdrachten’ (ViO, Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, a regulation with respect to independence) and other relevant independence regulations in the Netherlands. Furthermore, we have complied with the ‘Verordening gedrags- en beroepsregels accountants’ (VGBA, Dutch Code of Ethics).

We believe the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Report on the other information included in the annual report

In addition to the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon, the annual report contains other information that consists of:

  • the Board report 2018 including the Supervisory Board report;

  • other information.

Based on the following procedures performed, we conclude that the other information is consistent with the financial statements and does not contain material misstatements.

We have read the other information. Based on our knowledge and understanding obtained through our audit of the financial statements or otherwise, we have considered whether the other information contains material misstatements.

By performing these procedures, we comply with the requirements of the Dutch Standard 720. The scope of the procedures performed is less than the scope of those performed in our audit of the financial statements.

The Managing Director is responsible for the preparation of the other information.

Description of the responsibilities for the financial statements

Responsibilities of the Managing Director and the Supervisory Board for the financial statements

The Managing Director is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements in accordance with the Guideline for annual reporting 650 ‘Fundraising organizations’ of the Dutch Accounting Standards Board. Furthermore, the Managing Director is responsible for such internal control as the Managing Director determines is necessary to enable the preparation of the financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to errors or fraud.

As part of the preparation of the financial statements, the Managing Director is responsible for assessing the company’s ability to continue as a going concern. Based on the financial reporting framework mentioned, the Managing Director should prepare the financial statements using the going concern basis of accounting unless the board either intends to liquidate the Foundation or to cease operations, or has no realistic alternative but to do so. The Managing Director should disclose events and circumstances that may cast significant doubt on the company’s ability to continue as a going concern in the financial statements.

The Supervisory Board is responsible for overseeing the company’s financial reporting process.

Our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Our objective is to plan and perform the audit assignment in a manner that allows us to obtain sufficient and appropriate audit evidence for our opinion.

Our audit has been performed with a high, but not absolute, level of assurance, which means we may not have detected all material errors and fraud during our audit.

Misstatements can arise from fraud or errors and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of the financial statements. The materiality affects the nature, timing and extent of our audit procedures and the evaluation of the effect of identified misstatements on our opinion.

We have exercised professional judgement and have maintained professional scepticism throughout the audit, in accordance with Dutch Standards on Auditing, ethical requirements and independence requirements. Our audit included e.g.:

  • identifying and assessing the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to errors or fraud, designing and performing audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtaining audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from errors, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control;

  • obtaining an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Foundation’s internal control;

  • evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates and related disclosures made by the Managing Director;

  • concluding on the appropriateness of management’s use of the going concern basis of accounting and based on the audit evidence obtained, whether a material uncertainty exists related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on the Foundation’s ability to continue as a going concern. If we conclude that a material uncertainty exists, we are required to draw attention in our auditor’s report to the related disclosures in the financial statements or, if such disclosures are inadequate, to modify our opinion. Our conclusions are based on the audit evidence obtained up to the date of our auditor’s report. However, future events or conditions may cause the company ceasing to continue as a going concern;

  • evaluating the overall presentation, structure and content of the financial statements, including the disclosures; and

  • evaluating whether the financial statements represent the underlying transactions and events in a manner that achieves fair presentation.

We communicate with the Supervisory Board regarding, among other matters, the planned scope and timing of the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant findings in internal control that we identify during our audit.

Amstelveen, 17 May 2019

KPMG Accountants N.V.

H. Visser RA

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