AKAO 2017 Annual Report

137 As required by Rule 13a-15(b) under the Exchange Act, our management, under the supervision and with the participation of our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, has evaluated the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures (as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d- 15(e) under the Exchange Act) as of December 31, 2017. Based on such evaluation, our principal executive officer and principal financial officer have concluded that, as of December 31, 2017, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective at the reasonable assurance level. Remediation of Material Weakness As disclosed in Item 4 in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended June 30, 2017 and September 30, 2017, we identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting related to a design deficiency in the preparation and review of our earnings per share calculation. Specifically, our controls were not adequately designed to ensure that all potentially dilutive securities were accurately reflected in the calculation of our diluted earnings per share. During 2017, we executed our remediation plan for this material weakness. Our remediation activities included: • Reassessing the design and operation of internal controls over financial reporting, including setting up a model with sufficient detail to ensure that all potentially dilutive securities were accurately reflected in the calculation of our diluted earnings per share; • Training of accounting personnel to further educate the staff on the accounting of new and ongoing complex and/or technical transactions relevant to us; and • Increasing staffing levels and expertise to implement this remediation plan. We tested such newly established policies, procedures, and control activities designed to address the above- described material weakness. As a result, we believe that this material weakness was remediated as of December 31, 2017. Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. Internal control over financial reporting is a process designed by, or under the supervision of, our Principal Executive Officer and Principal Financial Officer to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of consolidated financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that in reasonable detail accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of our assets; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that our receipts and expenditures are being made only in accordance with authorizations of our management and directors; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of our assets that could have a material effect on our consolidated financial statements. Under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our Principal Executive Officer and Principal Financial Officer, we conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting based on criteria established in “Internal Control-Integrated Framework (2013)” issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). Our management concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2017. Our independent registered public accounting firm, Ernst & Young LLP, has audited the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2017 as stated in its report which is included herein.