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L E T T E R F R O M T H E
C H I E F F I N A N C I A L O F F I C E R
We are pleased to present our Fiscal Year 2013 Amtrak Annual Report, which includes the audited financial
results of the company for the year ended September 30, 2013 (FY 2013). Issuance of our FY 2013 audited
financial statements was delayed as we reviewed and revised our reported results for the year ended
September 30, 2012 (FY 2012). This review allowed us to ensure our FY 2013 results were properly stated.
The result of the review found that Amtrak had overstated its prior losses which led to various balance
sheet and income statement revisions. The total impact was less than one percent of Amtrak’s cumulative
losses. None of the adjustments related to cash or was the result of fraud or any inappropriate acts. In an
effort to improve our internal financial standards, we are undertaking a comprehensive review of our
personnel, policies and procedures, as well as our system resources.
As background, Amtrak first engaged the public accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP (EY) to audit our
financial statements beginning with FY 2012. As the EY team completed its audit of our FY 2012 financial
statements, they identified two significant deficiencies related to our accounting for capital leases and
accounting for deferred income taxes. In evaluating our historical calculations, we decided it was necessary
to review each capital lease from inception and also to establish procedures to properly compute deferred
income taxes. While we were identifying the revisions required to address those issues, we also recognized
other errors in prior period financial statements.
With the assistance of outside consultants, we evaluated more than 140 financing transactions that had
been entered into between the mid-1990s and early 2000s. The team calculated and recomputed the original
accounting entries to determine the impact on our financial statements for the prior and current fiscal years
and properly account for these transactions. Additionally, we applied complex tax accounting rules to
compute the amount of deferred income taxes required to be recorded.
We ultimately determined that the required adjustments, if all recorded in the current year, would
materially misstate our FY 2013 results. We also determined that the corrections in each of the periods in
which the related misstatements originated were not material. Accordingly, we are presenting our results
Gerald Sokol
10 | Amtrak Annual Report 2013