Management of the company is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting.
Internal control over financial reporting is defined in Rule 13a-15(f) and 15 d-15(f) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, as a process designed by, or under the supervision of, the company’s principal executive and principal financial officers and effected by the company’s board of directors, management and other personnel to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and includes those policies and procedures that:
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risks that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
Management assessed the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2004. In making this assessment, we used the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) in Internal Control – Integrated Framework. Based on our assessment, we believe that, as of December 31, 2004, the Company’s internal control over financial reporting is effective.
The Company’s independent auditors – Ernst & Young AB, an independent registered public accounting firm – have issued an audit report on our assessment of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting, which is included herein.
The certification required pursuant to Section 303A 12(a) of the New York Stock Exchange Listed Company Manual has been filed with the New York Stock Exchange.
The Company has also filed the CEO/CFO certifications required pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 as exhibit 31 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.