Item 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

The Company’s management, with the participation of its Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, has evaluated the effectiveness of the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures (as such term is defined in Rule 13a-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act")) as of September 30, 2024. Based on such evaluation, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer have concluded that, as of September 30, 2024, the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures are effective in recording, processing, summarizing, and reporting, on a timely basis, information required to be disclosed by the Company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act, and that information is accumulated and communicated to the Company’s management, including the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.

Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

The Company’s management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting, as such term is defined in Exchange Act Rule 13a-15(f). The Company’s management, with the participation of the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, has evaluated the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on the framework in Internal Control-Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. Based on this evaluation, the Company’s management has concluded that, as of September 30, 2024, the Company's internal control over financial reporting was effective.

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 risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, has audited the effectiveness of the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of September 30, 2024 as stated in its report which is included in Item 8 of this Form 10-K.

Remediation of Previously Reported Material Weakness in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

The Company's management concluded that a material weakness existed as of September 30, 2023, as previously disclosed in “Item 9A. Controls and Procedures" of its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2023, as the Company did not maintain sufficient information technology (“IT”) controls to prevent or detect, on a timely basis, unauthorized access to certain of its financial reporting systems. Specifically, the Company did not design and maintain effective controls related to access monitoring, intrusion detection and response capability, patch management and backup and recovery such that recovery from a cybersecurity incident could be performed in a timely manner.

The Company has taken corrective action to remediate and address the IT control deficiencies that aggregated to the noted material weakness. The controls that address the material weakness have been designed, implemented and operated effectively as of September 30, 2024 and for a sufficient period of time during fiscal 2024 in order for management to test these controls and conclude that the material weakness had been remediated as of September 30, 2024.

Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

There were no changes in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting during the quarter ended September 30, 2024, that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, the Company’s internal control over financial reporting.