Veritone, Inc. 10-Q

Item 4. Controls and Procedures 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 defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act as of March 31, 2024. Our disclosure controls and procedures are designed to provide reasonable assurance of achieving their objectives of ensuring that information we are required to disclose in the reports we file or submit under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate, to enable timely decisions regarding required disclosures, and is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in the rules and forms promulgated by the SEC. Our management recognizes that any disclosure controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving their objectives, and there is no assurance that our disclosure controls and procedures will operate effectively under all circumstances. Based on this evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer have concluded that, as of March 31, 2024, our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective at the reasonable assurance level due to the following material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting. Material Weaknesses in Internal Control over Financial Reporting A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the Company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. During the preparation of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023, management identified material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting relating to: • Management identified a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting relating to the consolidation process and review of financial statements specifically pertaining to the Company’s design of controls to determine proper accounting for certain foreign exchange transactions and translation between Veritone, Inc. and certain foreign subsidiaries. This material weakness did not result in any identified material misstatements to the financial statements. However, this material weakness could have resulted in a material misstatement to the Company’s annual or interim condensed consolidated financial statements that would not be prevented or detected and corrected on a timely basis. • Management identified a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting relating to information technology general controls (“ITGCs”) in the areas of user access and change-management over certain information technology (“IT”) systems that support our financial reporting processes. The Company’s business process automated and manual controls that are dependent on the affected ITGCs were also deemed ineffective because they could have been adversely impacted. These control deficiencies were a result of user access and change management processes over certain IT systems. Related to these findings, management concluded that during the year ended December 31, 2023, the Company did not maintain appropriately designed entity-level controls impacting the control environment or monitoring controls to prevent or detect material misstatements to the consolidated financial statements. Specifically, these deficiencies were attributed to (i) a lack of a sufficient number of qualified resources to perform control activities and (ii) insufficient risk assessment and monitoring activities as a result of untimely or ineffective identification of internal control risks to properly design, test, implement and assess effective internal controls over financial reporting. Remediation of Material Weaknesses in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting In order to remediate the material weaknesses, management is taking remediation actions including: (i) engaging an outside firm to assist with the remediation actions in March 2024; (ii) developing a more robust plan and risk assessment around the proper design, testing and assessment of internal controls over financial reporting in April 2024; (iii) developing a training program addressing ITGCs and policies, including educating control owners concerning the principles and requirements of each control, with a focus on those related to user access and change management over IT systems impacting financial reporting; (iv) developing and maintaining documentation of underlying ITGCs to promote knowledge transfer upon personnel and function changes; (v) implementing an IT management review and testing plan to monitor ITGCs with a specific focus on systems supporting our financial reporting processes and (vi) hiring and training staff on proper accounting for foreign exchange translation and transactions when consolidating foreign subsidiaries. Management has also hired additional staff to oversee the implementation and testing of these remediation actions. To further remediate the existing material weakness identified herein, the management team, including the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, have reaffirmed and re-emphasized the importance of 37 internal controls, control consciousness and a strong control environment. We are committed to maintaining a strong control environment and believe that these remediation efforts represent continued improvement in our control environment. We also expect to continue to review, optimize and enhance our financial reporting controls and procedures. A material weakness will not be considered remediated until the applicable remediated control operates for a sufficient period of time and management has concluded, through testing, that this enhanced control is operating effectively. Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting (as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) of the Exchange Act) during the quarter ended March 31, 2024 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting. Inherent Limitations on Effectiveness of Controls Management recognizes that a control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints and that management is required to apply its judgment in evaluating the benefits of possible controls and procedures relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud or error, if any, have been detected. These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision making can be faulty, and that breakdowns can occur because of a simple error or mistake. Additionally, controls can be circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more people, or by management override of the controls. The design of any system of controls also is based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions; over time, controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or the degree of compliance with policies or procedures may deteriorate. Because of the inherent limitations in a cost-effective control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected. 38 PART II. OTHER INFORMATION