Vivakor, Inc. 10-Q

Item 4. Controls and Procedures The term “disclosure controls and procedures,” as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act, refers to controls and procedures 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 the company’s management, including its principal executive and principal financial officers, or persons performing similar functions, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. In designing and evaluating our disclosure controls and procedures, management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objectives. In addition, the design of disclosure controls and procedures must reflect the fact there are resource constraints and management is required to apply judgment in evaluating the benefits of possible controls and procedures relative to their costs. 26 Our management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer (Principal Executive Officer) and Chief Financial Officer (Principal Financial Officer and Principal Accounting Officer), evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures pursuant to Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act. In designing and evaluating the disclosure controls and procedures, management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objectives. In addition, the design of disclosure controls and procedures 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. Based on management’s evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that, as a result of the material weaknesses described below, as of March 31, 2024, our disclosure controls and procedures are not designed at a reasonable assurance level and are ineffective to provide reasonable assurance that information we are required to disclose in reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in SEC rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. The material weaknesses, which relate to internal control over financial reporting, that were identified are: (1) We did not have enough personnel in our accounting and financial reporting functions. Due to insufficient personnel in our accounting department, we were not able to achieve adequate segregation of duties, and, as a result, we did not have adequate review controls surrounding: (i) our technical accounting matters in our financial reporting process, and (ii) the work of specialists involved in the estimation process. Due to new relationships with a small banking institution and consultants in 2023, we were not able to achieve adequate controls surrounding the review and dual authorization of certain treasury transactions and fixed assets. (2) We did not always follow certain review and authorization procedures related to corporate governance. Due to a vacancy of an independent audit committee chairman with financial expertise, and failing to adhere to certain corporate governance administrative procedures, we did not achieve adequate review at the independent Board of Director level over subjective and complex accounting and risk assessment. These control deficiencies, which are pervasive in nature, result in a reasonable possibility that material misstatements of the financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Management believes that the hiring of additional personnel who have the technical expertise and knowledge with the non-routine or technical issues we have encountered in the past will result in both proper recording of these transactions and a much more knowledgeable finance department as a whole. Since our assessment as of March 31, 2024, we have continued to hire additional external accounting staff with expertise in research and technical guidance, and we are working to retain additional qualified valuation experts that report on their internal controls. We have also begun to implement further review controls and processes surrounding treasury and fixed assets. We will continue to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures and our internal controls over financial reporting on an ongoing basis and are committed to taking further action and implementing additional enhancements or improvements, as necessary and as funds allow. Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting As noted above, we continue to contract with additional external accounting staff in order to attempt to remediate our material weaknesses. Such changes include multiple additional reviewers of financial information before it is submitted for filing with the SEC. We have also instituted further internal controls surrounding treasury, so that proper dual authorization is required by our banking institutions to process capital expenditures in 2024. There were no other changes in our internal controls identified in connection with the evaluation required by paragraph (d) of Rule 13a-15 or 15d-15 under the Exchange Act that occurred during the three months ended March 31, 2024 that have materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting. 27 PART II - OTHER INFORMATION ITEM 1. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS From time to time, we may become involved in various legal actions that arise in the normal course of business. We intend to defend vigorously against any future claims and litigation. We are not currently involved in any material disputes and do not have any material litigation matters pending.