The Chairman
Bank of Ceylon
Report of the Auditor General on the Financial Statements of the Bank of Ceylon and its subsidiaries for the year ended 31 December 2016
The audit of the Financial Statements of the Bank of Ceylon (‘the Bank’) and the Consolidated Financial Statements of the Bank and its subsidiaries (‘Group’) for the year ended 31 December 2016 comprising the Statement of Financial Position as at 31 December 2016 and the Statement of Profit or Loss, Statement of Comprehensive Income, Statement of Changes in Equity and Statement of Cash Flows for the year then ended, and a summary of significant accounting policies and other explanatory information was carried out under my direction in pursuance of provisions in Article 154 (I) of the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. To carry out this audit I was assisted by a firm of Chartered Accountants in public practice.
Board’s Responsibility for the Financial Statements
The Board of Directors (‘Board’) is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of these Financial Statements in accordance with Sri Lanka Accounting Standards and for such internal control as Board determines is necessary to enable the preparation of Financial Statements that are free from material misstatements, whether due to fraud or error.
Auditor’s Responsibility
My responsibility is to express an opinion on these Financial Statements based on my audit. I conducted my audit in accordance with Sri Lanka Auditing Standards. Those standards require that I comply with ethical requirements and plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the Financial Statements are free from material misstatements.
An audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the Financial Statements. The procedures selected depend on the Auditor’s judgment, including the assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the Financial Statements, whether due to fraud or error. In making those risk assessments, the Auditor considers internal control relevant to the Bank’s preparation and fair presentation of the Financial Statements 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 Bank’s internal controls. An audit also includes evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates made by Board, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the Financial Statements.
I believe that the audit evidence I have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for my audit opinion.
Opinion
In my opinion, so far as appears from my examination, the Bank maintained proper accounting records for the year ended 31 December 2016 and the Financial Statement give a true and fair view of the financial position of the Bank as at 31 December 2016 and its financial performance and its cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with Sri Lanka Accounting Standards.
In my opinion, the Consolidated Financial Statements give a true and fair view of the financial position as at 31 December 2016 and its financial performance and cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with Sri Lanka Accounting Standards of the Bank and its subsidiaries dealt with thereby, so far as concerns the shareholders of the Bank.
Exemption
The Bank has been exempted from the provisions of Part II of the Finance Act,
No. 38 of 1971 by an Order of then Minister of Finance published in the Government Gazette No. 715 of 14 May 1992 by virtue of powers vested in him by Sections 5 (1) of the said Finance Act.
Report to Parliament
My report to Parliament in pursuance of provisions in Article 154 (6) of the Constitution will be tabled in due course.
Auditor General
