Kraft 2003 Annual Report Download - page 62

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60
Company Report on Financial Statements
The consolidated financial statements and all related financial
information herein are the responsibility of the Company.
The financial statements, which include amounts based on
judgments, have been prepared in accordance with generally
accepted accounting principles. Other financial information in the
annual report is consistent with that in the financial statements.
The Company maintains a system of internal controls that it believes
provides reasonable assurance that transactions are executed in
accordance with management’s authorization and properly
recorded, that assets are safeguarded, and that accountability for
assets is maintained. The system of internal controls is characterized
by a control-oriented environment within the Company, which
includes written policies and procedures, careful selection and
training of personnel, and audits by a professional staff of internal
auditors.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, independent auditors, have audited
and reported on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.
Their audits were performed in accordance with generally accepted
auditing standards.
The Audit Committee of the Board of Directors, composed
of four non-employee directors, meets periodically with
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, the Company’s internal auditors
and management representatives to review internal accounting
control, auditing and financial reporting matters. Both
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the internal auditors have
unrestricted access to the Audit Committee and may meet
with it without management representatives being present.
Kraft Foods Inc. Report of Independent Auditors
To the Board of Directors and Shareholders of Kraft Foods Inc.:
In our opinion, the accompanying consolidated balance sheets
and the related consolidated statements of earnings, shareholders’
equity and cash flows present fairly, in all material respects, the
consolidated financial position of Kraft Foods Inc. and its
subsidiaries (the “Company”) at December 31, 2003 and 2002,
and the consolidated results of their operations and their cash flows
for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2003,
in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the
United States of America. These financial statements are the
responsibility of the Company’s management; our responsibility is
to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our
audits. We conducted our audits of these statements in accordance
with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of
America, which require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain
reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are
free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test
basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the
financial statements, assessing the accounting principles used and
significant estimates made by management, and evaluating the
overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits
provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
As discussed in Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements,
on January 1, 2002, the Company adopted Statement of
Financial Accounting Standards No. 142, “Goodwill and Other
Intangible Assets.”
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Chicago, Illinois
January 23, 2004