Thrifty Car Rental 2006 Annual Report Download - page 82

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Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
As described in Item 9A of the Company’s 2005 Form 10-K/A, filed on February 26, 2007,
management determined that internal controls over financial reporting were not effective relating
to specific application of SFAS No. 133 and SFAS No. 109 and represented material weaknesses
in internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2005. As reported in Item 4 of the
Company’s 2006 quarterly reports on Form 10-Q/A, filed on February 26, 2007, these material
weaknesses continued to exist as of the end of each of the first three quarters of 2006.
The Company took the following steps to remediate the material weaknesses in internal control
over financial reporting discussed above:
• Revised its policies to document and assess the effectiveness, at least quarterly using
the “long-haul” method, of all future interest rate swaps to ensure the continuing
qualification of hedge accounting.
• Continued to perform calculations of state income taxes utilizing enhanced processes to
ensure proper accounting for deferred state income tax liabilities.
Commencing on October 1, 2006, a range of the IT services of the Company have been
outsourced to EDS, including applications development and maintenance, network, workplace
and storage management, back-up and recovery and mid-range hosting services. With the
outsourcing of such a pervasive area of control, the Company believes that it is reasonably likely
to materially affect the Company’s internal controls over financial reporting. The Company
believes it has taken the necessary steps for its internal control environment to remain effective.
Attestation Report of the Registered Public Accounting Firm
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the Board of Directors and Stockholders of
Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc.:
We have audited management’s assessment, included in the accompanying Management’s
Annual Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting, that Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group,
Inc. and subsidiaries (the “Company”) maintained effective internal control over financial reporting
as of December 31, 2006, based on criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated
Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission.
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 opinions.
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