Minutes | Meeting of the Audit Committee of the Board (BAC) | 25 July 2024

BAC Attendees: Alan Barrett, Christian Kaufmann, Sajid Rahman (Chair), and Katrina Sataki

BAC Member Apologies: Catherine Adeya

Other Board Member Attendees: James Galvin and Patricio Poblete

ICANN org Attendees: Xavier Calvez (SVP, Planning and Chief Financial Officer), Franco Carrasco (Board Operations Manager), Elizabeth Le (Deputy General Counsel), Becky Nash (VP, Planning), Margarita Palange (Director, Accounting), Shani Quidwai (VP, Finance), and Amy Stathos (Deputy General Counsel)

Invited Guests: Representatives from independent audit firm and BAC Independent Adviser

The following is a summary of discussions, actions taken and actions identified:

1. Agenda review – The Chair opened the meeting and reviewed the agenda for the meeting.
2. Presentation from ICANN's Independent External Audit Firm re FY24 Audit - The BAC received a presentation from ICANN's independent audit firm regarding ICANN's FY24 audit. The firm presented the BAC with information on its FY24 audit, including the audit approach, scope, anticipated timeline, and deliverables. The audit firm reported that, as usual, the audit will include evaluating the financial statements in accordance with applicable accounting principles and determining if those statements accurately reflect ICANN's financial state. The firm and Committee noted that the audit procedures and scope includes evaluation of accruals, and whether investment are consistent with ICANN's investment policy. The audit firm also reported that it has already: performed the internal control and preliminary procedures; discussed what constitutes materiality; identified if there are any risks; walked through internal controls for all the key significant accounting areas; and performed planning analytics. The audit firm discussed the new current expected credit loss (CECL) standard, which requires all financial assets measured at amortized cost basis to be presented at the net amount to be collected. The firm noted that the CECL standard is not expected to have a significant impact on the financial statements. The firm anticipates that it will complete its field work by mid-September and should be able to issue its opinion by the end of September.
3. BAC Work Plan – The Committee reviewed its work plan, which is on target.
4. BAC Annual Training Overview – The BAC received a presentation regarding the development of this year's BAC training which will be conducted during the Board Workship in September 2024. ICANN org explained that the training is open to all Board members, and noted that face-to-face interactions with the presenters are encouraged with the goal of fostering better engagement and interaction.