23.4 SUSTAINABILITY/TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE REPORTING 23 • 17Exhibit 23.9. Auditor’s Statement from Co-operative Bank Partnership Report, 2000
(Pages 76–78).
auditor’s statement: ethics etc ...
Richard Evans, March 26, 2001ethics etc ...is an independent social accounting consultancy based in Newcastle upon Tyne. The audit
of The Co-operative Bank 2000 Partnership Report has been undertaken by Richard Evans. He is a certi-
fied Member of the Institute of Social and Ethical AccountAbility and currently a director and council
member. He has had a significant role in the development of corporate social and ethical accounting
since 1992 and in founding and establishing ISEA.
Responsibilities of the Directors and the Auditor. The directors of The Co-operative Bank plc are re-
sponsible for the content, truthfulness and scope of the Partnership Report. They have signed off the final
version of the report on which my audit is based and have undertaken to provide me with unlimited ac-
cess to all the information and bank staff I considered necessary for me to assess the accuracy, com-
pleteness and balance of the reported facts and opinions.
The auditor’s responsibility is to assure the bank’s shareholders, customers, employees, suppliers, local
communities, society and fellow co-operators that The Partnership Report is trustworthy and gives a bal-
anced account of the bank’s performance.
The auditor’s duty is to consider the interests of these partners and not those of the bank’s managers and
directors. The auditor is entirely responsible for the content of the auditor’s report, which the directors
have agreed to publish in full.
Basis of the Auditor’s Opinion. The assessment I have made is based on my own investigation of the
accuracy of statements made and the data included in the report and of the bank’s honesty in reporting
partners’ and commentators’ opinions. I have continued my investigations of the last three years into the
management practices, data systems, and partner dialogue processes which support the bank’s ethics, val-
ues, social responsibility policies and ecological principles.
I have commented below on some of the issues that arose during this audit. In all my investigations the
bank has disclosed original data requested and allowed me free access to management files, reports by
internal and independent specialists, and to staff and partner representatives. I am confident that no ma-
terial information has been deliberately withheld.
In assessing the Partnership Report I have followed the principles set out in The Institute of Social and Eth-
ical AccountAbility’s AA1000 Framework Standard for social and ethical accounting, auditing and re-
porting. I have also referred to the GRI Sustainability Reporting guidelines (June 2000), statutory guide-
lines for company reporting and, for auditing principles, to the Statement of Auditing Standards published
by The Auditing Practices Board.
Scope of the Audit Process. I have:
- audited the data, commentary and opinions on pages 2–67;
- selected two projects and written the reviews on pages 70–73;
- considered the content of the expert assessments on delivering value, social responsibility and eco-
logical sustainability on pages 79–85 and find the views expressed consistent with my own find-
ings.
The Audit. The bank has made good progress in following up issues raised in my last auditor’s report
and the recommendations made to managers in the course of carrying out the previous systems review
and audit. The main actions are referenced below under the progress report headings.
This report has increased the transparency of the process by providing references, accessible on the
bank’s website, to underlying supporting data. It has also made a first, and noteable attempt, to provide
a cost/benefit analysis in a number of areas where the bank has pursued an ethical and ecological agenda
beyond minimum legislative requirements. I recognise that this is neither easy, because there are no ac-
cepted standards for such reporting in place, and will be controversial, because it challenges traditional
limits to corporate transparency. The bank is to be commended and encouraged for its initiative.
Delivering Value. The bank’s equity shareholder, its customers and suppliers can all draw satisfaction
from the continued good performance of the bank in delivering value. As was signalled last year, staff
have faced a year of considerable and continuing change with the implementation of new people poli-
cies and practices. New staff surveys designed to monitor the impact on employees have, as recom-
mended last year, made use of broad based consultation with staff and their representatives. The changes
in survey methodology have produced results, in this section of the report, where some targets set under