AbbVie 2014 Annual Report Download - page 108

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ITEM 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON ACCOUNTING AND
FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE
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None.
ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
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Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Evaluation of disclosure controls and procedures. The Chief Executive Officer, Richard A. Gonzalez,
and the Chief Financial Officer, William J. Chase, evaluated the effectiveness of AbbVie’s disclosure controls
and procedures as of the end of the period covered by this report, and concluded that AbbVie’s disclosure
controls and procedures were effective to ensure that information AbbVie is required to disclose in the
reports that it files or submits with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Securities Exchange
Act of 1934 is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the
Commission’s rules and forms, and to ensure that information required to be disclosed by AbbVie in the
reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to AbbVie’s
management, including its principal executive officer and principal financial officer, as appropriate to allow
timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
Management’s annual report on internal control over financial reporting. Management’s report on
internal control over financial reporting is included on page 103 hereof. The report of AbbVie’s independent
registered public accounting firm related to its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over
financial reporting is included on page 104 hereof.
Changes in internal control over financial reporting. As part of its separation from Abbott, AbbVie
began a phased global implementation of a new enterprise resource planning system, related technology
infrastructure and transaction processing services to replace the information technology infrastructure and
transactional services provided to AbbVie by Abbott under various transition services agreements. These
initiatives, which are expected to be completed in 2015, will include modifications to the design and
operation of controls over financial reporting. AbbVie reviews these controls for design effectiveness prior
to the implementation of each phase.
There were no other changes in AbbVie’s internal control over financial reporting (as defined in
Rule 13a-15(f) under the Exchange Act) that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially
affect, AbbVie’s internal control over financial reporting during the quarter ended December 31, 2014.
Inherent Limitations on Effectiveness of Controls. AbbVie’s management, including its Chief Executive
Officer and its Chief Financial Officer, do not expect that AbbVie’s disclosure controls or internal control
over financial reporting will prevent or detect all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well
designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the control system’s
objectives will be met. The design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource
constraints, and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Further, because of the
inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that
misstatements due to error or fraud will not occur or that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any,
have been detected. These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision-making can
be faulty and that breakdowns can occur because of simple error or mistake. Controls can also be
circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more people, or by
management override of the controls.
The design of any system of controls is based in part on certain assumptions about the likelihood of
future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals
under all potential future conditions. Projections of any evaluation of controls effectiveness to future
periods are subject to risks. Over time, controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions
or deterioration in the degree of compliance with policies or procedures.
ITEM 9B. OTHER INFORMATION
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None.
102 2014 Form 10-K