 |
The Audit Committee of the Board of Directors (the Committee) is comprised of the nine
directors named below. Each member of the Committee is an independent director as defined
by New York Stock Exchange rules. The Committee has adopted a written charter which has
been approved by the Board of Directors. The Committee has reviewed and discussed the
Company's audited financial statements with management, which has primary responsibility
for the financial statements. KPMG LLP, the Company's independent auditor for 2001, is
responsible for expressing an opinion on the conformity of the Company's audited financial
statements with generally accepted accounting principles. The Committee has discussed with
KPMG the matters that are required to be discussed by Statement on Auditing Standards No.
61 (Communication With Audit Committees). KPMG has provided to the Committee the written
disclosures and the letter required by Independence Standards Board Standard No. 1 (Independence
Discussions with Audit Committees), and the Committee discussed with KPMG that firm's independence.
The Committee also concluded that KPMG's provision of non-audit services, including financial
information systems design and implementation services, to GE and its affiliates is compatible with
KPMG's independence.
Based on the considerations referred to above, the Committee recommended to the Board of
Directors that the audited financial statements be included in the Company's Annual Report on
Form 10-K for 2001 and that KPMG be appointed independent auditors for the Company for 2002.
The foregoing report is provided by the following independent directors, who constitute the
Audit Committee:
|
Claudio X. Gonzalez (Chairman) Silas S. Cathcart
Ann M. Fudge Scott G. McNealy Gertrude G. Michelson
|
Roger S. Penske Frank H. T. Rhodes Andrew C. Sigler Douglas A. Warner III
|
|  |