First National Study of Public Company Audit Committees

In 2009 an obligation to appoint audit committees in public companies was introduced in Poland. It was a response to the recommendation of the European Commission and it overlapped with an apparent trend present in the highly developed markets for more than a decade. In the past few months several companies listed on the Stock Exchange decided to establish audit committees or entrust its tasks to the five-person supervisory board. But are all companies properly prepared for this?

PricewaterhouseCoopers, Polish Association of Listed Companies and Polski Instytut Dyrektorów decided to conduct First National Study of Public Company Audit Committees and to examine the functioning of audit committees in public companies in Poland at the turn of 2009-2010, in particular the scope of their activities and work organization, profile of the audit committee/supervisory board member and factors affecting the development of committees. The results of the analysis will be presented by PwC, SEG and PID at a conference organized jointly with the Warsaw Stock Exchange, which will be held in autumn 2010 in the Stock Exchange building.

We believe that the results will allow us to gather information about the current situation of audit committees in Poland, as well as perceived trends, best practices and possible directions for further development. They will also allow us to identify educational needs or areas, where it is necessary to introduce legislative changes.

If you wish to get the link to the questionnaire please contact directly Barbara Lenarcik from PricewaterhouseCoopers (basia.lenarcik@pl.pwc.com). Filling out the form will take you approximately 15 minutes. All responses will remain confidential and the results will be published only in an aggregated form, without disclosing the name of the company.

We invite you to participate in the study. In this way you can help in the setting of standards and rules of the Audit Committees work, by sharing experiences and needs arising from your own work.