CVS 2005 Annual Report Download - page 27

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REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
The Board of Directors and Shareholders
CVS Corporation
We have audited management’s assessment, included in the accompanying Management’s Report on
Internal Control Over Financial Reporting, that CVS Corporation and subsidiaries maintained effective
internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2005, based on criteria established in Internal
Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway
Commission (COSO). The Company’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control
over financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting.
Our responsibility is to express an opinion on management’s assessment and an opinion on the effectiveness
of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audit.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight
Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable
assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material
respects. Our audit included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting,
evaluating management’s assessment, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of
internal control, and performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances.
We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
A company’s internal control over financial reporting 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 generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal
control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance
of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the
assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary
to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles,
and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations
of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention
or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have
a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect
misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation 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.
In our opinion, management’s assessment that CVS Corporation and subsidiaries maintained effective
internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2005, is fairly stated, in all material respects,
based on criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by COSO. Also, in our
opinion, CVS Corporation and subsidiaries maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control
over financial reporting as of December 31, 2005, based on criteria established in Internal Control—
Integrated Framework issued by COSO.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting
Oversight Board (United States), the consolidated balance sheets of CVS Corporation and subsidiaries
as of December 31, 2005 and January 1, 2005, and the related consolidated statements of operations,
shareholders’ equity, and cash flows for the fifty-two week periods ended December 31, 2005 and
January 1, 2005 and the fifty-three week period ended January 3, 2004, and our report dated
March 14, 2006, expressed an unqualified opinion on those consolidated financial statements.
KPMG LLP
Providence, Rhode Island
March 14, 2006
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM