The audit committee is responsible for, among other things: selecting our independent registered public accounting firm and pre-approving all auditing and non-auditing services permitted to be performed by our independent registered public accounting firm; reviewing with our independent registered public accounting firm any audit problems or difficulties and management’s response; reviewing and approving related party transactions; discussing the annual audited financial statements with management and our independent registered public accounting firm; meeting periodically with the management and our internal auditor and our independent registered public accounting firm; and reviewing and discussing our accounting and control policies and procedures and any steps taken to monitor and control major financial risk exposure.