AbbVie 2013 Annual Report Download - page 105

ITEM 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON ACCOUNTING AND
FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE
None.
ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Evaluation of disclosure controls and procedures. The Chief Executive Officer, Richard A.
Gonzalez, and the Chief Financial Officer, William J. Chase, evaluated the effectiveness of AbbVie’s
disclosure controls and procedures as of the end of the period covered by this report, and concluded
that AbbVie’s disclosure controls and procedures were effective to ensure that information AbbVie is
required to disclose in the reports that it files or submits with the Securities and Exchange Commission
under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the
time periods specified in the Commission’s rules and forms, and to ensure that information required to
be disclosed by AbbVie in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is accumulated
and communicated to AbbVie’s management, including its principal executive officer and principal
financial officer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
Management’s annual report on internal control over financial reporting. Management’s report on
internal control over financial reporting is included on page 102 hereof. The report of AbbVie’s
independent registered public accounting firm related to its assessment of the effectiveness of internal
control over financial reporting is included on page 103 hereof.
Changes in internal control over financial reporting. During the quarter ended December 31, 2013,
there were no changes in AbbVie’s internal control over financial reporting (as defined in
Rule 13a-15(f) under the Exchange Act) that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to
materially affect, AbbVie’s internal control over financial reporting.
Inherent Limitations on Effectiveness of Controls. AbbVie’s management, including its Chief
Executive Officer and its Chief Financial Officer, do not expect that AbbVie’s disclosure controls or
internal control over financial reporting will prevent or detect all errors and all fraud. 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, 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.
ITEM 9B. OTHER INFORMATION
None.
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