Audit committee

The board committee responsible for overseeing financial reporting, the internal controls, and the relationship with the external auditor.

Its composition is prescribed: for a listed company at least three directors, two-thirds of them independent. All must be financially literate and at least one must have accounting or financial management expertise, and the chair must be independent. Related-party transactions require its approval, given only by its independent members, and the auditor reports to it.

You'll find the committee's meeting count, the attendance of its members, and the disclosure of what it reviewed all in the corporate governance report. A committee that met the bare minimum number of times at a company with complex related-party dealings has told you how much scrutiny those dealings received.

Where an auditor resigns, this is the committee they raised it with.