Saks Fifth Avenue 2008 Annual Report Download - page 42

Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure.
None.
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures.
DISCLOSURE CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
Under the supervision and with the participation of the Company’s management, including the Chief
Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, the Company conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of its
disclosure controls and procedures (as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange
Act) as of the end of the period covered by this report. Based on this evaluation, the Company’s Chief Executive
Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures were
effective as of such date. The Company’s disclosure controls and procedures are designed to ensure that
information required to be disclosed by the Company in the reports it 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 management, including the Chief Executive Officer
and Chief Financial Officer, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
MANAGEMENT’S REPORT ON INTERNAL CONTROL OVER FINANCIAL REPORTING
Management of the Company is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over
financial reporting, as such term is defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f). The 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 accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. 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, within the Company 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.
Under the supervision and with the participation of the Company’s management, including the Chief
Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, the Company conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of the
design and operation of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of the end of the period
covered by this report based on criteria set forth in the Internal Control — Integrated Framework issued by the
Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (“COSO”). Based on this evaluation and
management’s assessment, management believes that, as of January 31, 2009, the Company’s internal control
over financial reporting was effective “at the reasonable assurance level” based on those criteria.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, the independent registered public accounting firm that audited the financial
statements included in this report, has issued an attestation report on the Company’s internal control over
financial reporting which appears in Item 15.
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