To
The Board of Directors and Shareowners of Verizon Communications
Inc.:
We have audited management’s assessment, included in
the accompanying Report of Management on Internal Control
Over Financial Reporting, that Verizon Communications Inc.
and subsidiaries (Verizon) maintained effective internal control
over financial reporting as of December 31, 2005, based on
criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework
issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the
Treadway Commission (the COSO criteria). Verizon’s management
is responsible for maintaining effective internal control
over financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness
of internal control over financial reporting. Our responsibility
is to express an opinion on management’s assessment and
an opinion on the effectiveness of the company’s internal
control over financial 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 effective internal
control over financial reporting was maintained in all material
respects. Our audit included obtaining an understanding of
internal control over financial reporting, evaluating management’s
assessment, testing and evaluating the design and operating
effectiveness of internal control, 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 financial reporting
is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding
the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation
of financial statements for external purposes in accordance
with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s
internal control over financial reporting 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.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over
financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements.
Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness 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.
In our opinion, management’s assessment that Verizon
maintained effective internal control over financial reporting,
as of December 31, 2005, is fairly stated, in all material
respects, based on the COSO criteria. Also, in our opinion,
Verizon maintained, in all material respects, effective internal
control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2005,
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 Verizon as of December
31, 2005 and 2004, and the related consolidated statements
of income, cash flows and changes in shareowners’ investment
for each of the three years in the period ended December 31,
2005 and our report dated February 23, 2006 expressed an unqualified
opinion thereon.
Ernst & Young LLP
New York, New York
February 23, 2006 |
