The Management Board is responsible for TomTom's risk management and internal control systems. The Management Board believes that the company maintains an adequate and effective system of risk management and internal control that complies with the Dutch Code of Corporate Governance.
The internal control systems are designed to manage, rather than eliminate, the risk of failure to achieve business objectives and can provide reasonable, but not absolute, assurance against financial loss or material misstatements in the financial statements.
TomTom views the management of risk as a key management activity. The Management Board reviews the effectiveness of TomTom's systems of internal control relative to strategic, financial, operational and compliance risks and discusses risk management and internal controls with the Audit Committee on at least a quarterly basis.
TomTom embeds risk management into the periodic strategic business planning and internal control mechanisms. A top-down approach is followed, whereby the major risks that could affect the business objectives are identified by responsible management together with an assessment of the effectiveness of the processes and internal controls in place to manage and mitigate these risks. Please refer to the Business Risks section for an overview of our most important risks. Assurance on the effectiveness is obtained through management reviews, control self-assessments, internal audits and testing of certain aspects of the internal financial control systems by the external auditors during the course of their annual audit.
This, however, does not imply that TomTom can provide certainty as to the realisation of business and financial objectives, nor can the followed approach to internal control over financial reporting be expected to prevent or detect all misstatements, errors, fraud or violation of law or regulations.
The key features of the systems of internal control are as follows:
The key controls over financial reporting policies and procedures include controls to ensure that:
The Management Board believes, based on the activities performed in 2011 and in accordance with best practice provision II.1.5 of the Dutch Corporate Governance Code, that the risk management and control systems, with regard to the financial reporting risks, have worked properly in 2011, and that the risk management and control systems provide reasonable assurance that the 2011 financial statements do not contain any errors of material importance.
With reference to the statement within the meaning of article 5:25C (2) (c), the Financial Markets Supervision Act, the Management Board states that, to the best of its knowledge:
Amsterdam, 28 February 2012
The Management Board
Harold Goddijn - CEO
Marina Wyatt - CFO
Alain De Taeye

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