E-Z-GO 1999 Annual Report Download - page 41

Management is responsible for the integrity and objectivity of the financial data presented in
this Annual Report. The consolidated financial statements have been prepared in conformity
with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States and include amounts based
on Management’s best estimates and judgments. The independent auditors, Ernst & Young LLP,
have audited the consolidated financial statements and have considered the internal control
structure to the extent they believed necessary to support their report, which appears below.
We conduct our business in accordance with the standards outlined in the Textron
Business Conduct Guidelines which is communicated to all employees. Honesty,
integrity and high ethical standards are the core values of how we conduct business.
Every Textron division prepares and carries out an annual Compliance Plan to ensure
these values and standards are maintained. Our internal control structure is designed
to provide reasonable assurance, at appropriate cost, that assets are safeguarded and that
transactions are properly executed and recorded. The internal control structure includes,
among other things, established policies and procedures, an internal audit function,
and the selection and training of qualified personnel. Textron financial managers are
responsible for implementing effective internal control systems and monitoring their
effectiveness, as well as developing and executing an annual internal control plan.
The Audit Committee of our Board of Directors, on behalf of the shareholders, oversees
management’s financial reporting responsibilities. The Audit Committee, comprised of seven
directors who are not officers or employees of the Company, meets regularly with the indepen-
dent auditors, management and our internal auditors to review matters relating to financial
reporting, internal accounting controls and auditing. Both the independent auditors and the
internal auditors have free and full access to senior management and the Audit Committee.
Lewis B. Campbell
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Stephen L. Key
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
January 25, 2000
To the Board of Directors and Shareholders
Textron Inc.
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Textron Inc. as of January 1,
2000 and January 2, 1999, and the related consolidated statements of income, cash flows and
changes in shareholders’ equity for each of the three years in the period ended January 1,
2000. 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 in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the
United States. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reason-
able 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. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and
significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial state-
ment presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all
material respects, the consolidated financial position of Textron Inc. at January 1, 2000 and
January 2, 1999, and the consolidated results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the
three years in the period ended January 1, 2000, in conformity with accounting principles
generally accepted in the United States.
Boston, Massachusetts
January 25, 2000
Report of
Independent
Auditors
Report of
Management
1999 Textron Annual Report 39