Walmart 2013 Annual Report Download - page 59

Walmart 2013 Annual Report || 57
The Board of Directors and Shareholders of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
We have audited Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.’s internal control over  nancial
reporting as of January 31, 2013, based on criteria established in Internal
Control-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring
Organizations of the Treadway Commission (the COSO criteria). Wal-Mart
Stores, Inc.’s management is responsible for maintaining e ective internal
control over  nancial reporting, and for its assessment of the e ectiveness
of internal control over  nancial reporting included in the accompanying
“Management’s Report to Our Shareholders.” Our responsibility is to
express an opinion on the Company’s internal control over  nancial
reporting based on our audit.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the Public
Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards
require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance
about whether e ective internal control over  nancial reporting was
maintained in all material respects. Our audit included obtaining an
understanding of internal control over  nancial reporting, assessing the
risk that a material weakness exists, testing and evaluating the design
and operating e ectiveness of internal control based on the assessed
risk, and performing such other procedures as we considered necessary
in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable
basis for our opinion.
A company’s internal control over  nancial reporting is a process
designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of
 nancial reporting and the preparation of  nancial statements for
external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting
principles. A company’s internal control over  nancial reporting includes
those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of
records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly re ect the
transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide
reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to
permit preparation of  nancial statements in accordance with generally
accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of
the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of
management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable
assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized
acquisition, use or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a
material e ect on the  nancial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over  nancial
reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of
any evaluation of e ectiveness 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.
As indicated in the accompanying “Management’s Report to Our
Shareholders,” management’s assessment of and conclusion on the
e ectiveness of internal control over  nancial reporting did not include
the internal controls of Newheight Holdings Ltd, a company that owns
Yihaodian (collectively, “Yihaodian”), an e-commerce business in China,
which is included in the 2013 consolidated  nancial statements of
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and constituted 0.8% and 0.0% of the Company’s
consolidated total assets and consolidated net sales, respectively, as of
and for the year ended January 31, 2013. Our audit of internal control
over  nancial reporting of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. also did not include an
evaluation of the internal control over  nancial reporting of Yihaodian.
In our opinion, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. maintained, in all material respects,
e ective internal control over  nancial reporting as of January 31, 2013,
based on the COSO criteria.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public
Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), the consolidated
balance sheets of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. as of January 31, 2013 and 2012,
and related consolidated statements of income, comprehensive income,
shareholders’ equity and cash  ows for each of the three years in the
period ended January 31, 2013 and our report dated March 26, 2013
expressed an unquali ed opinion thereon.
Rogers, Arkansas
March 26, 2013
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting