Abercrombie & Fitch 2013 Annual Report Download - page 80

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80
ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES.
Disclosure Controls and Procedures
A&F maintains disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”)) that are designed to provide reasonable assurance that information
required to be disclosed in the reports that A&F files or submits under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized
and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and
communicated to A&F’s management, including the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of A&F and the Executive Vice
President and Chief Financial Officer of A&F, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosures. Because
of inherent limitations, disclosure controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only
reasonable, and not absolute, assurance that the objectives of disclosure controls and procedures are met.
A&F’s management, including the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of A&F and the Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer of A&F, evaluated the effectiveness of A&F’s design and operation of its disclosure controls and
procedures as of the end of the fiscal year ended February 2, 2013. The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of A&F and the
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of A&F concluded that A&F’s disclosure controls and procedures were
effective at a reasonable level of assurance as of February 2, 2013, the end of the period covered by this Annual Report on
Form 10-K.
Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
The management of A&F is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial
reporting. A&F’s internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act)
is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of
financial statements for external purposes in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of
America.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements.
Also, projections of any evaluations of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become
inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
Accordingly, even an effective system of internal control over financial reporting will provide only reasonable assurance with
respect to financial statement preparation.
With the participation of the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of A&F and the Executive Vice President and Chief
Financial Officer of A&F, management evaluated the effectiveness of A&F’s internal control over financial reporting as of
February 2, 2013 using criteria established in the Internal Control-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of
Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (“COSO”). Based on the assessment of A&F’s internal control over
financial reporting, under the criteria described in the preceding sentence, management has concluded that, as of February 2,
2013, A&F’s internal control over financial reporting was effective.
A&F’s independent registered public accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, has issued an audit report on the
effectiveness of A&F’s internal control over financial reporting as of February 2, 2013 as stated in their report, which is
included in “ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
There were no changes in A&F’s internal control over financial reporting during the fourth quarter ended February 2,
2013 that materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, A&F’s internal control over financial reporting
except for the change in accounting principle to the weighted average cost method from the retail method of accounting for
inventory.
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