Item 9A. - Controls and Procedures
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Item 9A. - Controls and Procedures
As disclosed in our prospectus filed with the SEC on March 25, 2019, during the course of preparing for our initial public offering, we identified two material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting during the conversion of our historical AAS financial statements to U.S. GAAP. The first material weakness was related to our lack of accounting staff and supervisory personnel with the appropriate level of experience in technical accounting in U.S. GAAP and disclosure and filing requirements of a U.S. domestic registrant. We are currently in the process of remediating this material weakness and have taken numerous steps to address the underlying causes of the material weakness. We have hired additional financial reporting personnel with U.S. GAAP technical accounting and financial reporting experience, aligned our accounting policies and procedures with U.S. GAAP, enhanced our internal review procedures during the financial close process, and begun technical training for accounting and finance personnel.
We also identified a second material weakness arising from deficiencies in the design and operating effectiveness of internal controls over the period end reporting process. Specifically, we did not design and maintain effective controls to verify that conflicting duties were appropriately segregated within key IT systems used in the preparation and reporting of financial information. We are currently in the process of remediating this material weakness by commencing a process to (i) identify those internal controls requiring improved documentation of independent review over the completeness and accuracy of financial information under U.S. GAAP, (ii) implement enhanced standards designed to meet the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, (iii) review the design of applicable internal controls and assess any required amendments and (iv) increase the training of accounting and finance staff in relevant areas.
We believe that these enhanced resources and processes, including the implementation of new mitigating controls, will effectively remediate the material weaknesses, but the material weaknesses will not be considered remediated until the revised controls operate for a sufficient period of time and we have concluded, through testing, that these controls are designed and operating effectively.
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Our management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of June 30, 2019. The term "disclosure controls and procedures," as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), means controls and other procedures of a company that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the SEC's rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to our management, including its principal executive and financial officers, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed, and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving their objectives and management necessarily applies its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures.
As discussed above, related to our internal controls over financial reporting, we have made significant progress in our remediation efforts, but the remediation of these material weaknesses will not be evaluated until management performs its assessment of internal controls, at which time the material weakness will not be considered remediated until the applicable remedial controls have operated for a sufficient period of time and management has concluded, through testing, that these controls are operating effectively. Therefore, as a result of these material weaknesses, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective as of June 30, 2019.
(b) Management's Report on Internal Controls Over Financial Reporting
This Annual Report on Form 10-K does not include a report of management’s assessment regarding internal control over financial reporting or an attestation report of our registered public accounting firm due to a transition period established by rules of the SEC for newly public companies.
(c) Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
Except as described above, there were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act) that occurred during the fourth fiscal quarter of 2019 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
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