IBM 2015 Annual Report Download - page 77

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75
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
International Business Machines Corporation and Subsidiary Companies
To the Stockholders and Board of
Directors of International Business
Machines Corporation:
In our opinion, the accompanying Consolidated Financial State-
ments appearing on pages 76 through 146 present fairly, in all
material respects, the financial position of International Busi-
ness Machines Corporation and its subsidiaries at December31,
2015 and 2014 and the results of their operations and their cash
flows for each of the three years in the period ended Decem-
ber31, 2015 in conformity with accounting principles generally
accepted in the United States of America. Also in our opinion, the
Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal
control over financial reporting as of December31, 2015, based
on criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework
(2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organ izations of the
Treadway Commission (COSO). The Company’s management is
responsible for these financial statements, for maintaining effec-
tive internal control over financial reporting and for its assessment
of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting,
included in the accompanying Management’s Report on Inter-
nal Control over Financial Reporting appearing on page74. Our
responsibility is to express opinions on these financial statements
and on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting
based on our integrated audits. We conducted our audits in
accordance with the standards of the Public Company Account-
ing Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that
we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance
about whether the financial statements are free of material mis-
statement and whether effective internal control over financial
reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audits of
the financial statements included examining, on a test basis, evi-
dence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial
statements, assessing the accounting principles used and signif-
icant estimates made by management, and evaluating the overall
financial statement presentation. Our audit of internal control over
financial reporting included obtaining an understanding of internal
control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material
weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and oper-
ating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk.
Our audits also included performing such other procedures as we
considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our
audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinions.
A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a pro-
cess 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 (i)
pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail,
accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of
the assets of the company; (ii) 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 (iii) 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, pro-
jections 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.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
New York, New York
February 23, 2016