Item 4. Controls and Procedures
Item 4.
Controls and Procedures.
Disclosure Controls and Procedures
We maintain “disclosure controls and procedures,” as such term is defined under Rule 13a-15(e) promulgated under the Exchange Act, designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in
our reports filed pursuant to the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including
our principal executive officer and our principal financial officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosures.
In designing and evaluating the disclosure controls and procedures, we recognized that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance
of achieving the desired control objectives, and we were required to apply our judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures. We have carried out an evaluation as of the end of the period covered by this
Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q under the supervision, and with the participation, of our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and President (who serves as our principal executive officer) and our Chief Financial Officer (who served as
our principal financial officer through the end of the three month period ended March 31, 2023 and resigned from the Company effective May 4, 2023), of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures.
Based on that evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective as of the end of the period covered by
this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q in providing reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objectives due primarily to the material weakness discussed below.
Management’s Plan for Remediation of Material Weakness in Internal Control over Financial Reporting
Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. 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.
We were unable to timely file our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2022 with the SEC due to identifying errors in our financial statements reported in the
Annual Report on Form 10-K for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 during our preparation of the financial statements for the quarter ended March 31, 2022. Management concluded that the errors were the result of accounting personnel’s lack
of technical proficiency in complex matters. We filed an amendment to our Annual Report on Form 10-K/A for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 on June 30, 2022 to correct the errors in our financial statements for the years ended December
31, 2021 and 2020 and for the quarters ended June 30, 2020, September 30, 2020, March 31, 2021, June 30, 2021 and September 30, 2021.
Management is implementing measures designed to ensure that the deficiencies contributing to the ineffectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting are promptly remediated, such
that the internal controls are designed, implemented and operating effectively. The remediation actions include:
•
enhancing the business process controls related to reviews over technical, complex, and non-recurring transactions;
•
providing additional training to accounting personnel; and
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consulting with an accounting advisor for technical, complex and non-recurring matters, with whom we have engaged and begun consulting.
The material weakness cannot be considered remediated until the applicable remedial controls operate for a sufficient period of time and management has concluded, through testing, that these
controls are operating effectively.
We are committed to developing a strong internal control environment, and we believe the remediation efforts that we have implemented and will implement will result in significant improvements in
our control environment. Our management will continue to monitor and evaluate the relevance of our risk-based approach and the effectiveness of our internal controls and procedures over financial reporting on an ongoing basis and is committed to
taking further action and implementing additional enhancements or improvements, as necessary.
Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting
Except for the actions intended to remediate the material weakness as described above, there was no change in our internal control over financial reporting during the most recent fiscal quarter
that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
PART II — OTHER INFORMATION
Text extracted from the filing as submitted to EDGAR. Formatting, tables and exhibits are simplified for reading; the original document is authoritative for anything you rely on.