ALKALINE WATER Co INC 10-Q

Item 4. Controls and Procedures. Disclosure Controls and Procedures We maintain "disclosure controls and procedures", as that term is defined in Rule 13a-15(e), promulgated by the Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Disclosure controls and procedures include controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our company's reports filed under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the Securities and Exchange Commission'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 to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. As required by paragraph (b) of Rules 13a-15 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, our management, with the participation of our principal executive officer and our principal financial officer, evaluated our company's disclosure controls and procedures as of the end of the period covered by this quarterly report on Form 10-Q. Based on this evaluation, our management concluded that as of the end of the period covered by this quarterly report on Form 10-Q, our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective. The ineffectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures was due to the material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting disclosed in our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022. 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 our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Our management identified the following material weaknesses: (1) we had inadequate segregation of duties over both financial reporting and closing activities, (2) we had inadequate resources in the accounting department, (3) delays in the implementation of a new ERP accounting system which caused the system to not function as intended and as a result led to delays in our financial closing activities. In response to the material weaknesses discussed above, we are working on implementing a new integrated ERP system and have hired additional accounting personnel in December 2022. Once the ERP system in fully implemented within the next three months, we plan to engage a third-party consultant to develop a comprehensive control framework using the ERP and to document our internal controls based on the implementation of the ERP system. We will continue to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting on an ongoing basis and are committed to taking further action and implementing additional improvements as necessary. Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting during the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2022 that have materially affected or are reasonably likely to materially affect our internal control over financial reporting. PART II-OTHER INFORMATION