NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[hyperopia]

ex, it was in the 10-K :

ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
 
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
 
We, the management of Northwest Biotherapeutics, Inc. (the “Company”), are responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting of the Company.
 
We maintain disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act) that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in the reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time period specified in the SEC's rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including to our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
 
As required by Rule 13a-15 under the Exchange Act, our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, evaluated the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures as of December 31, 2019. In making this assessment, the Company’s management used the criteria established in Internal Control — Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (“COSO”). 
 
Our management concluded that as of December 31, 2019, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective, and previous noted deficiencies have been remediated, as described below.

 
Management's Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
 
The management of the Company is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. The Company's 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. Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. In addition, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
 
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.
 
Management of the Company, including our CEO and CFO, assessed the effectiveness of the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2019.  Based on this assessment, we determined that we have effectively designed and implemented, consistently performed and tested the functioning of these controls.
 
Based on the efforts identified above, we have concluded that the previously identified material weaknesses in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting have been remediated through the following efforts:
 
  1. To
maintain effective controls over the operating effectiveness of information technology ("IT") systems that are relevant to the preparation of our financial statements, we designated a  Chief Information Officer, formalized and consistently implemented appropriate IT policies, and strengthened the oversight of the Company’s third-party service providers with regards to maintaining documentation related to the areas of: managing user access, IT change management, IT infrastructure (cybersecurity, network security) and IT operations (physical security, contingency planning, disaster recovery, backups). The Chief Information Officer oversees and approves all of the activities performed by our third party service providers.
 
  2. We improved our level of documentation to support reviews and retention of such documentation to support management’s review activities. This documentation is used as evidence of such review procedures being performed by management over the processing, recording and reviewing of transactions related to certain contracts, accounting memos and certain monthly closing procedures.  We have also invested additional resources to continue to improve our financial control environment through the hiring of an additional executive dedicated to these efforts as the Chief Financial and Accounting Officer (CFO/CAO).
 
  3. The Company has formalized and implemented a complete set of financial operational policies and related procedures which govern our system of internal controls over financial reporting.  These policies were reviewed and tested to be effective as of December 31, 2019.

Because these material weaknesses
were successfully remediated and additional material weaknesses were not identified, management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, has concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2019.
 
The effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting has been audited by Marcum LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in their attestation report in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, which expresses an unqualified opinion on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2019.
 
Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
 

There were no changes, other than those described above, in our internal control over financial reporting during the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2019 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
 

https://sec.report/Document/0001104659-20-034145/#b_007