Rotana Corporate Sustainability Report 2017

21 AUDIT AND CONTROL Financial Audits: two accounting principles, transparency and control, inform everything we do and ensure an up-to-the- minute understanding of where our hotels stand financially – as well as a clear understanding of how improved cost efficiencies will affect our future performance. Rotana’s systems provide feedback to property owners on every aspect of their property, be it occupancy trends, colleague productivity or cost efficiency. Financial planning is underpinned by practical policies, state-of- the-art information systems and a two-tier independent audit process that ensures management and operational performance is continuously reviewed and evaluated. Grant Thornton performs an annual audit of the core business for all Rotana hotels and supports processes to highlight gaps in internal controls and also reviews the business and supports processes to identify improvement opportunities. A risk-based approach is taken by: • Evaluating the control objectives of the main processes • Evaluating the risks surrounding each process • Evaluating the existing controls in each process • Identifying the main gaps and deficiencies in the control system • Recommending and proposing solutions, controls and systems to address the gaps and manage risks Audit findings for each category criteria are assessed as low, medium and high risk, hence enabling our hotels to priorities and act on the recommendations to strengthen the business and support processes. A review of the status of implementation of recommendations made is carried out annually and incorporated in the report presented to management. Our operations manuals and authorisation systems are geared towards maintaining control over every operating cost. Combined, these tools give owners and managers the means to maximise revenue growth, ensure profitability, and deliver strictly controlled expenditure. RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS To earn and retain the trust of our owners, guests and other stakeholders, we manage our operations responsibly and conduct our business in an ethical and transparent way, ensuring we comply with applicable legislation, guest requirements and stakeholder expectations. The BOD is responsible for the overall strategic direction of the company and risk management and is supported in the day-to- day operation by four committees: ethics, executive, audit and sustainability. An official detailed authority matrix is established and approved by the BOD specifying the authorities of the Executive Committee and board members in relation to specific tasks involving financial, social, legal, procurement and business development. This authority matrix represents the key tool for addressing and preventing any potential risks related to fraud and conflict of interest. Shareholders are initially and continuously involved in setting the company’s values, mission, and strategy. An investment strategy is established taking into consideration different types of business risks including, but not limited to market, products, political, owner profile, partners, level of investment and the strategy is approved by the BOD. The BOD regularly addresses all key treasuries related decisions, and assesses and approves its utilisation. Business Integrity CODE OF BUSINESS CONDUCT AND ETHICS We lay out our commitment to high ethical standards in our ‘Code of Business Conduct and Ethics’ (CBCE). Our CBCE is based on our values and details the principles and expectations for how we operate at Rotana. It applies to all colleagues and members of the Board. We expect and encourage our contractors and their employees to act in a way that is consistent with our code and we take appropriate remedial actions where we believe that they have not met our expectations, or their contractual obligations. The code is available on the company intranet and has been communicated to all colleagues. It is also incorporated in all employment contracts. All colleagues have to sign the statement to commit and accept the company’s code of conduct, certifying that they have understood the code, will abide by their stated responsibilities under the code and report any breaches of which they are aware. The code is available in 3 languages: English, Urdu and Tagalog, targeting the greater portion of colleague nationalities. It is a compulsory requirement for all new colleagues to undergo training on the CBCE training module as part of the Rotana LIFE orientation programme. The training module addresses in detail the intent of the CBCE including: • Compliance with laws, rules and regulations • Conflict of interest