GeneDx Holdings Corp
For the period ended Dec 31, 2023. Filed Feb 23, 2024.
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FY2023 · Filed Feb 23, 2024
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Item 9A. Controls and Procedures
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Disclosure controls and procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed or submitted under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms.
As required by Rules 13a-15 and 15d-15 under the Exchange Act, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer carried out an evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures as of December 31, 2023. Based on that evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective as of December 31, 2023 because of the material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting discussed below.
Notwithstanding the material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting described below, our management has concluded that our consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are fairly stated in all material respects in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”).
Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting
Management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting and for the assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting as defined in Rule 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act. Internal control over financial reporting is a process designed under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
Under the supervision and with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer and oversight of the Board of Directors, our management conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2023, based on the criteria set forth in Internal Control-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 COSO framework). Based on this evaluation, due to the material weaknesses described below, management concluded that the Company’s internal control over financial reporting were not effective.
Material Weaknesses
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 a company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.
In connection with the preparation of the Annual Report on Form 10-K as of December 31, 2022, we previously reported three material weaknesses in our internal controls over financial reporting, as follows:
We did not have sufficient, qualified finance and accounting staff with the appropriate U.S. GAAP technical accounting expertise to effectively maintain processes and controls that allow for the timely production of accurate financial information with internal financial reporting timelines, commensurate with our size and the nature and complexity of our operations.
We did not maintain formal processes and controls to achieve complete, accurate and timely financial accounting, reporting and disclosures, including controls over the preparation and review of account reconciliations, journal entries, classification of certain costs, non-recurring complex transactions and the accounting in accordance with U.S. GAAP.
Our accounting and operating systems lacked controls over access, and program change management that are needed to ensure access to financial data is adequately restricted to appropriate personnel, including consideration of the appropriate segregation of duties. As a result, it is possible that the Company’s business process controls that depend on the accuracy and completeness of data or financial reports generated by the Company's information technology system could be adversely affected due to the lack of operating effectiveness of the information technology general controls (“ITGCs”).
Of the three previously reported material weaknesses noted above, the first two items have been remediated as of December 31, 2023 and due to significant enhancement during 2023, only portions of the third remains unremediated as of December 31, 2023. Specifically, our accounting and operating systems lacked controls over user access and program change management that are needed to ensure access to financial data is adequately restricted to appropriate personnel, including consideration of the appropriate segregation of duties.
Remediation Plan
Our management is actively engaged and committed to taking the steps necessary to remediate the material weakness over user access and program change management in order to establish a strong internal control environment. During 2023, we designed and implemented the following measures as part of the remediation efforts over the lack of operating effectiveness of the information technology general controls (“ITGCs”):
We expanded the available resources with experience designing and implementing ITGCs, through hired information technology (“IT”) employees and use of outside consultants.
We implemented role redesign for certain systems, including rationalization user roles and permissions and establishing appropriate segregation of duties, where applicable.
We implemented process improvements and standardized certain practices across relevant systems, including access provisioning, deprovisioning and user access review (UAR) processes.
We conducted training for personnel responsible for internal control performers to deepen their comprehension of risk assessment concepts and to refine their execution of controls pertaining to financial reporting.
We strengthened and documented our accounting policies and procedures around ITGCs and communicated the policies to relevant personnel.
We have implemented action plans to address remaining issues that still exist within user access and change management, and continue to enforce consistent execution of key internal control procedures.
While significant progress has been made to strengthen the design and operating effectiveness of our ITGCs, management has concluded that as of December 31, 2023, there was not a sufficient period of time available to sufficiently test nor conclude that enhanced internal controls were fully implemented and operating effectively. We will continue to monitor the effectiveness of our remediation measures in connection with our future assessments of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures, and we will make any changes to the design of our plan and take such other actions that we deem appropriate given the circumstances.
We will continue to monitor the effectiveness of ITGC remediation actions in connection with future assessments of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures. Assessment results will be used to validate the efficacy of our ITGC remediation efforts and identify any additional actions necessary to ensure ongoing design and operating effectiveness.
Remediation of Previously-Reported Material Weaknesses
As of December 31, 2023, management believes the following two previously reported material weaknesses have been remediated:
We did not have sufficient, qualified finance and accounting staff with the appropriate U.S. GAAP technical accounting expertise to effectively maintain processes and controls that allow for the timely production of accurate financial information in accordance with internal financial reporting timelines, commensurate with our size and the nature and complexity of our operations.
We did not maintain formal processes and controls to achieve complete, accurate and timely financial accounting, reporting and disclosures, including controls over the preparation and review of account reconciliations, journal entries, classification of certain costs, non-recurring complex transactions and the accounting in accordance with U.S. GAAP.
To remediate these material weaknesses, the Company documented and implemented the following actions:
We hired key personnel, obtained qualified accountants and retained additional resources with the appropriate technical accounting skills to achieve complete, accurate, and timely financial accounting and reporting. In addition, we formalized roles and review responsibilities to align the team’s skills and experience, including consideration related to the segregation of duties, to the risk and complexity of our transactions.
We completed a gap analysis of the processes supporting our internal control over financial reporting to identify areas where new controls are needed and where existing controls required improvement. Based on that analysis, we formalized detailed remediation plans at the risk and control level to improve our internal control framework.
We strengthened and documented our internal accounting policies and procedures and communicated them to all relevant personnel.
We standardized business practices and implemented various improvements within financial functional areas, including account reconciliation reviews and automation of certain close processes.
Management believes it has effectively designed and tested the operating effectiveness related to the previously-reported material weaknesses noted above. Accordingly, management has concluded that these material weaknesses have been remediated because each component of the material weakness has been operating effectively for a sufficient period of time.
Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
Our management has evaluated, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, changes in our internal controls over financial reporting (as defined in Rule 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) of the Exchange Act) during the fourth quarter of 2023. Except as described above with respect to the remediation of certain previously-reported material weaknesses, there were no changes in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the quarter ended December 31, 2023 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting. We continue to take steps to remediate the material weakness in our information technology general controls over financial reporting, as discussed above.
Inherent Limitation on the Effectiveness of Internal Control
Our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, does not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures, or our internal controls, will prevent all error and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well conceived 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 the benefits of controls must be considered 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, if any, within our Company have been detected.
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