TerraForm Power, Inc. (TERP)FORM 10-K | Annual Report

http://seekingalpha.com/filing/3313399?uprof=46&utoken=5a73019890f4b8b60a9892f2ee461e92eb22beb6

Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Our internal control over financial reporting is designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with U.S. 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 the assets of the Company; (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 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 effect on the financial statements.

As of December 31, 2015 , management conducted an assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting based upon the framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission in Internal Control-Integrated Framework (2013) (COSO 2013 Framework). Based on management’s assessment using these criteria, our management concluded that, as of December 31, 2015 , our internal control over financial reporting was not effective as further described below.

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 in our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. As of December 31, 2015 , we identified the following material weaknesses:

The Company, and SunEdison as our service provider for all matters related to financial reporting processes and controls, did not maintain an effective control environment, risk assessment process, information and communication process and monitoring activities based on the following:

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The Company did not have effective Board oversight and management monitoring activities over the information technology system development and implementation of financial reporting processes and internal controls established by the parent company service provider;
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The Company did not have a sufficient number of trained resources with assigned responsibility and accountability for financial reporting processes and the design and effective operation of internal controls conducted by the parent company service provider;
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The Company did not have an effective risk assessment process that identified and assessed necessary changes in generally accepted accounting principles, financial reporting processes and internal controls, in response to risks of fraud and error impacted by changes in the business model resulting from rapid growth from acquisitions, changes in information systems, changes at SunEdison, and transition of key personnel;
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The Company did not have effective information and communication processes that ensured appropriate and accurate information was available to financial reporting personnel on a timely basis in order that they could fulfill their roles and responsibilities; and
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The Company did not have effective monitoring activities in place to assess whether the components of internal control were present and functioning.

Accordingly, the Company, and SunEdison as our service provider for all matters related to financial reporting processes and controls, did not have effective control activities over the following:

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The Company did not have effective general information technology controls (GITCs), specifically, system development, program change, and access GITCs over the consolidation and Solar segment operating systems, databases, and IT applications. Also, the Company did not have effective access controls over the Wind Segment operating system,

databases, and IT applications. Accordingly, process level automated controls and compensating manual controls that were dependent upon the information derived from IT systems were also deemed ineffective.
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The Company did not have effective controls over the completeness, existence, and accuracy of revenues, specifically, process level controls over the price and quantity inputs to revenue and accounts receivable transactions were not adequately designed and performed.
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The Company did not have effective operation of reconciliation controls over the completeness, existence and accuracy of various balance sheet accounts. Specifically, the reconciliation controls did not adequately investigate, resolve and correct reconciling items on a timely basis.
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The Company did not have effective controls over the completeness, existence and accuracy of allocated general and administrative expenses including payroll and other costs shared with SunEdison.
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The Company did not have effective controls over the completeness, existence and accuracy of the transfer of historical costs related to renewable energy facilities acquired from SunEdison.
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The Company did not have effective controls over the completeness and presentation of restricted cash. Specifically, the Company’s policies and procedures to record restricted cash were not applied consistently across accounts.
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The Company did not have effective controls over the completeness and accuracy of information used in goodwill impairment, business combinations, hypothetical liquidation of book value, debt covenant compliance and going concern processes.

These control deficiencies resulted in several material misstatements to the preliminary consolidated financial statements that were corrected prior to the issuance of the audited consolidated financial statements. These control deficiencies create a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement to the consolidated financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis, and therefore we concluded that the deficiencies represent material weaknesses in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting and our internal control over financial reporting was not effective as of December 31, 2015.