Internal Controls

To help ensure that shareholders receive accurate financial information, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires public companies to assess their internal control structures and procedures for financial reporting and to disclose any material weakness in these controls. Our assessment is audited by an independent public accounting firm. The first report was due for the 2004 fiscal year. We spent 20 months and 22,000 direct employee hours to establish a process and conduct the initial review, which concluded our internal controls were effective and identified no material weaknesses. Our reports for fiscal 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 also concluded that our internal controls were effective and identified no material weaknesses.