Student Loan Scheme Annual Report to 30 June 2008

Audit Opinion

 

To the readers of the Student Loan Scheme’s financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2008

The Auditor-General is the auditor of the financial statements of the Student Loan Scheme. The Auditor-General has appointed me, H C Lim, using the staff and resources of Audit New Zealand, to carry out the audit of the financial statements of the Student Loan Scheme, on his behalf, for the year ended 30 June 2008.

Unqualified Opinion

In our opinion the financial statements of the Student Loan Scheme on pages 48 to 54:

• comply with generally accepted accounting practice in New Zealand; and
• fairly reflect:
  
  • the Student Loan Scheme’s financial position as at 30 June 2008; and
    
  • the results of its revenue, expenditure and cash flows for the year ended on that date.
    

The audit was completed on 17 October 2008, and is the date at which our opinion is expressed.

The basis of our opinion is explained below. In addition, we outline the responsibilities of the Secretary for Education and the Auditor, and explain our independence.

Basis of Opinion

We carried out the audit in accordance with the Auditor-General’s Auditing Standards, which incorporate the New Zealand Auditing Standards.

We planned and performed the audit to obtain all the information and explanations we considered necessary in order to obtain reasonable assurance that the financial statements did not have material misstatements, whether caused by fraud or error.

Material misstatements are differences or omissions of amounts and disclosures that would affect a reader’s overall understanding of the financial statements. If we had found material misstatements that were not corrected, we would have referred to them in our opinion.

The audit involved performing procedures to test the information presented in the financial statements. We assessed the results of those procedures in forming our opinion.

Audit procedures generally include:

• determining whether significant financial and management controls are working and can be relied on to produce complete and accurate data;
• verifying samples of transactions and account balances;
• performing analyses to identify anomalies in the reported data;
• reviewing significant estimates and judgements made by the Secretary for Education;
• confirming year-end balances;
• determining whether accounting policies are appropriate and consistently applied; and
• determining whether all financial statement disclosures are adequate.
  

We did not examine every transaction, nor do we guarantee complete accuracy of the financial statements.

We evaluated the overall adequacy of the presentation of information in the financial statements. We obtained all the information and explanations we required to support our opinion above.

Responsibilities of the Secretary for Education and the Auditor

The Secretary for Education is responsible for preparing the financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting practice in New Zealand. The financial statements must fairly reflect the financial position of the Student Loan Scheme as at 30 June 2008 and the results of its revenue, expenditure and cash flows for the year ended on that date.

We are responsible for expressing an independent opinion on the financial statements and reporting that opinion to you. This responsibility arises from section 15 of the Public Audit Act 2001.

Independence

When carrying out the audit we followed the independence requirements of the Auditor-General, which incorporate the independence requirements of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand.

Other than the audit, we have no relationship with or interests in the Student Loan Scheme.

H C Lim

Audit New Zealand

On behalf of the Auditor-General

Wellington,

New Zealand