Item 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES

The Company's management, including its Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, have conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Company's disclosure controls and procedures (as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act)), as of the end of the period covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Based on that evaluation, the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded as of December 31, 2018, that the Company's disclosure controls and procedures were effective in ensuring that information required to be disclosed by the Company in reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act has been recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the Commission's rules and forms, and that such information has been accumulated and communicated to the Company's management including its Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting, as defined under Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f). Our 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 generally accepted accounting principles. Internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that:

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

Management assessed the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2018. In making this assessment, management used the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) in Internal Control-Integrated Framework (2013). We concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2018.

As discussed in Item 7, we have completed six business acquisitions during 2018. Because they were acquired by us in 2018, we have excluded these businesses, AD Systems, Door and Access Systems, Hammond, Isonas, QMI and TGP, from our assessment of internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2018. These entities are wholly-owned subsidiaries whose total assets and total revenues represent approximately 3% and 6%, respectively, of the related consolidated financial statement amounts as of and for the year ended December 31, 2018. We are currently integrating these entities into our compliance programs and internal control processes.

The effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting has been audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, the independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in their report herein.

There were no changes in the Company's internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the quarter ended December 31, 2018 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.