General Electric 2004 Proxy Statement

GE.com - 2003 Annual Report


	Notice of 2004 Annual Meeting of Shareowners Proxy Statement Election of Directors Corporate Governance Board of Directors and Committees Information Relating to Directors, Nominees and Executive Officers Compensation Committee Report Contingent Long-Term Performance Incentive Awards Stock Options and Stock Appreciation Rights Summary Compensation Table Five-Year Financial Performance Graph Retirement Benefits Audit Committee Report Independent Auditor Ratification of Selection of Independent Auditor Proposal to Add a Revenue Measurement to Executive Officer Performance Goals for Long-Term Performance Awards Shareowner Proposals Additional Information Appendix: Governance Principles Advance Registration


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Each member of the committee is an independent director as determined by our board of directors, based on the New York Stock Exchange listing rules and GE’s independence guidelines. Each member of the committee also satisfies the Securities and Exchange Commission’s additional independence requirement for members of audit committees. In addition, our board of directors has determined that Robert J. Swieringa is an “audit committee financial expert,” as defined by SEC rules.

We have reviewed and discussed the company’s audited financial statements with management, which has primary responsibility for the financial statements. KPMG LLP, our company’s independent auditor for 2003, 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 audit and non-audit services, as described in the next section, to GE and its affiliates is compatible with KPMG’s independence.

Based on the considerations referred to above, the committee recommended to our board of directors that the audited financial statements be included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for 2003 and selected KPMG as the independent auditor for the company for 2004. This report is provided by the following independent directors, who constitute the committee:

Douglas A. Warner III (Chairman)
James I. Cash, Jr.
Claudio X. Gonzalez
Kenneth G. Langone
Andrew C. Sigler
Robert J. Swieringa