To the Executive Board of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt
We were engaged to provide assurance on the indicators in the chapter ‘Facts and figures’, including explanatory notes, in the online ‘Merck Corporate Responsibility Report – Update 2013’ (further ‘The Report’) for the business year 2013 of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt (further ‘Merck’). The Executive Board is responsible for the appropriateness of the determination and presentation of the indicators in The Report in accordance with the reporting criteria, including the identification of material issues. Our responsibility is to issue an assurance report on the selected indicators, including the explanatory notes, published in The Report.
Scope
Our assurance engagement was designed to provide limited assurance on whether the indicators, including the explanatory notes, in the chapter ‘Facts and figures’ for the business year 2013 of The Report are presented, in all material respects, in accordance with the reporting criteria:
- Economics
- Compliance
- Employees
- Environment
- Society
Procedures performed to obtain a limited level of assurance are aimed at determining the plausibility of information and are less extensive than those for a reasonable level of assurance.
Reporting criteria and assurance standards
Merck applies the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines G3.1 of the Global Reporting Initiative, the Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (Scope 1 und 2), and the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard of World Resources Institute/World Business Council for Sustainable Development, supported by internal guidelines, as described in the section ‘About this report ’, as reporting criteria.
We conducted our engagement in accordance with the International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000: Assurance Engagements other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information and the International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3410: ‘Assurance Engagements on Greenhouse Gas Statements‘, issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board. These standards require, amongst others, that the assurance team possesses the specific knowledge, skills and professional competencies needed to provide assurance on sustainability information, and that we comply with the requirements of the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants of the International Federation of Accountants to ensure our independence.
Work undertaken
Our procedures included:
- Evaluation of the design and implementation of the systems and processes for the collection, processing and control of the indicators, including the consolidation of the data, at corporate and site level.
- Interviews with relevant staff on corporate level responsible for providing and consolidating the data, as well as carrying out internal control procedures on the data including the explanatory notes.
- Visits to Molsheim (France), Corsier-sur-Vevey (Switzerland) and Aubonne (Switzerland) to assess local data collection and reporting processes and the reliability of the reported data.
- An analytical review of the data and trend explanations submitted by all sites for consolidation at Group level.
- Use of the insights and relevant work performed for the group and statutory audit of the (consolidated) financial statements for the year ended December 31 of Merck KGaA for the business year 2013 with regard to audit procedures on those information and indicators that were derived from those consolidated financial statements.
- An evaluation of the overall presentation of the selected indicators, including the explanatory notes, within the scope of our engagement.
Conclusion
Based on the procedures performed, as described above, nothing has come to our attention to indicate that the selected indicators, including the explanatory notes, in The Report are not, in all material respects, presented in accordance with the reporting criteria.
Frankfurt am Main, May 26, 2014
KPMG AG
Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft
[Original German version signed by:]
Wirtschaftsprüferin
Wirtschaftsprüfer