SEC Company Response from CONCORDE CAREER COLLEGES INC (CIK 0000832483) — May 25, 2005
CONCORDE CAREER COLLEGES INC (CIK 0000832483)
Date: May 25, 2005 · CIK: 0000832483 · Accession: 0000832483-05-000019
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File numbers found in text: 000-16992
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CORRESP
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May 25, 2005 - Correspondence
Mr. Larry
Spirgel
Assistant
Director
United
States Securities and Exchange Commission
Washington,
D.C. 20549
May 25,
2005
RE:
Concorde
Career Colleges, Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31,
2004
Filed
March 15, 2005
Form 10-Q
for the quarter ended March 31, 2005
File No.
000-16992
Dear Mr.
Spirgel,
This
letter is in reference to your inquiry dated May 16, 2005 concerning Concorde
Career Colleges, Inc. (the “Company”). Our responses have been numbered to match
the comments in your letter. We have addressed your comments regarding both the
Form 10-K and Form 10Q in the same response.
1.
Tell
us why you believe that you have only one reportable segment. In this
regard, we note that you classify your programs into three general
categories. In addition, you have recently created a regional structure to
manage your campuses. If you have aggregated more than one operating
segment into a single reportable segment, tell us how you determined that
you met the requirements in paragraph 17 of SFAS 131 for aggregation,
including the requirement that the segments have similar economic
characteristics.
The Company's
business is providing career vocational training programs in the allied health
field. The Company serves the
segment of
population seeking to acquire a career-oriented education. The Company only
provides programs that lead to a
diploma or
associate degree. We do not offer bachelor or graduate degrees or provide online
degrees. The Company’s operations
are
aggregated into a single reportable operating segment based upon similar
economic and operating characteristics as well as
similar
markets. The Company’s operations are subject to similar regulatory
environments. Management does not evaluate
performance
by region or by program category (core, clinical and other). The Company does
not allocate resources by region or
program
category. The Company conducts its operations only in the United
States.
Program
categories are identified in the public filings as additional information. The
Company classifies programs in three general
categories;
clinical, core and other. Clinical programs (Surgical Technology, Respiratory
Therapy, Radiologic Technology, and
Practical/Vocational
Nurse) are generally 12 to 15 months in length. The weekend Vocational Nursing
program and Radiological
Technician
are longer, 18 and 24 months respectively. Clinical programs utilize clinical
training that occurs in a hospital or medical
facility.
Core programs (Medical Assistant, Dental Assistant, Massage Therapy, Medical
Office Management, and Insurance
Coding and
Billing Specialist) are generally 9 to 12 months in length and utilize an
externship immediately prior to graduation.
Externships
occur in medical offices, dental offices, medical and dental clinics, medical
facilities, and hospitals. The remaining
programs are
similar in nature to the core programs but are not currently offered in as many
campuses as the core programs. The
nature of
training for all program categories is similar. The teaching, testing, and
completion process is similar for all program
categories.
The target customer is similar for all program categories. The method used to
deliver programs is similar and the
regulatory
environment is similar for all program categories.
The Company
created a regional structure to improve oversight and corporate management of
each of our facilities. The regional
structure
allowed us to locate education and operations experts closer to the respective
schools. This has facilitated travel,
reduced
travel time and allowed the staff to spend more of their time training and
assisting field staff. Management does not
evaluate
performance by region. Management evaluates performance by individual campus
irrespective of its region or program
category mix
because of their similar economic characteristics. The Company believes that we
have only one reportable segment
pursuant to
FASB Statement No. 131. As such we do not believe it is necessary to restate our
Form 10-K or Form 10-Q for
segment
reporting.
2.
Refer
to your auditor’s report where they state that their audit was conducted
“in accordance with auditing
standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United
States).” The opinion should state, instead, that the audit was “conducted
in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB.” Have your auditors revise
their report to comply with PCAOB Auditing Standard No. 1 and the related
SEC Release 34-49707.
The Company
and BKD, LLP, our independent accounting firm concur with your comment. BKD, LLP
will revise their report to
comply with
PCAOB Auditing Standard No. 1 and the related SEC Release 34-49707. The Company
requests that it not be subject
to amending
its Form 10-K for fiscal year ended December 31, 2004 only for this revision.
3.
It
appears that revenue and cost of revenue associated with your products and
services are not segregated in accordance with Rule 5-03 (b) of Regulation
S-X. If your revenue from the sale of textbooks and uniforms is greater
than 10% of total revenues, revise your income statement to present these
amounts separately.
Revenue from
the sale of textbooks and uniforms was 6.8% of total revenues for the 12 months
ended December 31, 2004 and 7.6%
of total
revenues for the three months ended March 31, 2005. The Company does not believe
any change is required pursuant to
Rule 5-03 (b)
of Regulation S-X.
4.
We
note that you establish an account receivable and corresponding deferred
revenue liability for each student upon commencement of a program of
study. Tell us why you believe it is appropriate to recognize the
receivable prior to earning the tuition revenue and the deferred revenue
prior to receiving the cash. Tell us how your policy of recording
receivables complies with the definition of an asset in Statement of
Financial Accounting Concepts 6.
The Company
believes it is appropriate to record the receivable and corresponding deferred
revenue liability for each student
upon
commencement of a program of study because an event has occurred that obligates
the student to pay before all services
are rendered.
That event is the signing of the enrollment agreement, which details the program
charges and program description,
and the
student sitting in class one day. This event gives the Company the right to bill
and collect the tuition. Cash is received on
the student’s
account in the following manner, a nominal registration fee is generally paid at
the time of enrollment, 40% of the
receivable
balance is paid approximately 30 days after the program begins, substantially
all of the remaining receivable balance is
paid
approximately six months after the program begins. The recorded account
receivable contains the three essential
characteristics of an
asset as set forth in Statement of Financial Accounting Concepts 6 because: (a)
it embodies a probable future
benefit that
directly contributes to future net cash inflows, (b) the Company has obtained
the benefit of the account receivable
and controls
others' access to it, and (c) the transaction or other event giving rise to the
Company's right to or control of the
benefit has
already occurred. In accordance with SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 104,
revenue is recognized as services are
rendered
(over the length of the program including any externship) because of the
existence of an agreement establishing a fixed
price and
because collectibility is reasonably assured.
5.
We
note your disclosure that “our management, including the Chief Executive
Officer and Chief Financial Officer, concluded that our disclosure
controls and procedures, subject to limitations as noted below, were
effective.” Please revise to delete the “subject to limitations”
qualification and state simply whether or not management concluded that
your disclosure controls and procedures were effective at the reasonable
assurance level. Alternatively you may state simply, if true, that
management concluded that your disclosure controls and procedures were
effective. See Section II.F.4. of Securities Act Release No. 33-8238 (June
5, 2003), which is available on our web site at .
The Company’s
Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004 included the following language
under Item 9a:
“The Company conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of the design
and operation of our disclosure controls and
procedures; as such term is defined under Rule 13a-15(e) promulgated under the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as
amended (Exchange Act), under the supervision of and with the participation of
our management, including the Chief
Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Based on that evaluation, our
management, including the Chief Executive
Officer and Chief Financial Officer, concluded that our disclosure controls and
procedures, subject to limitations as noted
below, were effective at December 31, 2004, and during the period prior to and
including the date of this report. There have
been no material changes in our internal controls or in other factors that could
materially affect internal controls subsequent
to December 31, 2004. The Report of Management on Internal Controls can be found
under Item 8.”
“Because of its inherent limitations, our disclosure controls and procedures may
not prevent or detect misstatements. A
control
system, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable,
not absolute, assurance that the
objectives of the control system are met. Because of the inherent limitations in
all control systems, no evaluation of controls
can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud,
if any, have been detected.”
Securities
Act Release No. 33-8238 (June 5, 2003), cited in your comments, includes this
guidance:
“In
disclosures required under current Item 307 of Regulations S-K and S-B, Item 15
of Form 20-F and General Instruction
(6) to Form 40-F, some companies have indicated that disclosure controls and
procedures are designed only to provide
‘reasonable assurance’” that the controls and procedures will meet their
objectives. In reviewing those disclosures, the
Commission staff generally has not objected to that type of disclosure. The
staff has, however, requested companies
including that type of disclosure to set forth, if true, the conclusions of the
principal executive and principal financial officer
that the disclosure controls and procedures are, in fact, effective at the
‘reasonable assurance’ level.
We understand
that the Commission’s staff regularly objects to attempts to use exculpatory
language or limitations to go beyond
the
‘reasonable assurance’ limitation described in Securities Act Release No.
33-8238.
In this case,
the “subject to limitations” is, as is evident from a review of the quoted
material above, simply a statement of the
‘reasonable
assurance’ standard; it is not language that is intended to, or that can be
fairly read to, limit the scope of the
conclusions
as to effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures (except as is
permitted by the guidance regarding
‘reasonable
assurance’ given in the previously cited release). For that reason, the Company
believes that your comment is
inapplicable
in this particular case.
However, in
response to the comment, the Company will revise its disclosures in future
filings, and will re-word the disclosure to
state (if
then true) that the “conclusions of the principal executive and principal
financial officer that the disclosure controls and
procedures
are … effective at the ‘reasonable assurance’ level”, and, to avoid any
confusion, will not include the “subject to
limitations”
language.
6.
We
note your disclosure that “[t]here have been no material changes in our
internal controls or in other factors that could materially affect
internal controls subsequent to December 31, 2004.” Please revise to
clarify, if true, that there were no changes in your internal control over
financial reporting that occurred during your last fiscal quarter that
have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect,
your internal control over financial reporting. See Item 308(c) of
Regulation S-B, which became effective on August 14, 2003. See also
Section II.J. of Securities Act Release No. 33-8238 (June 5, 2003), which
is available on our web site at .
Item 308(c)
of Regulation S-K requires registrants to “[d]isclose any change in the
registrant’s internal control over financial
reporting
identified in connection with the evaluation required by paragraph (d) of
240.13a-15 or 240.15d-15 of this chapter that
occurred
during the registrant’s last fiscal quarter (the registrant’s fourth fiscal
quarter in the case of an annual report) that has
materially
affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the registrant’s
internal control over financial report.”
The Company
did not have any changes in its internal control over financial reporting that
materially affected, or that was
reasonably
likely to materially affect, the registrant’s internal control over financial
reporting. Because there was no change
requiring
disclosure under Item 308(c) of Regulation S-K, the Company has satisfied its
disclosure obligations under the item, and
in our view
no change to the disclosure is necessary under the rule. The Company simply does
not have an affirmative obligation
under the
rule, as presently written, to make a statement to the effect that there were no
changes in internal control over financial
reporting
that occurred during the last fiscal quarter that materially affected, or were
reasonably likely to materially affect, the
Company’s
internal control over financial reporting. For that reason, the Company believes
that a revision to the filing is
unnecessary.
7.
Please
revise to remove your exhibits from the body of the periodic report. The
exhibits should be separately filed and tagged on EDGAR as exhibits, and
not appended to the body of the periodic report.
The Company will file all future
reports with exhibits separate from the body of the periodic reports. We request
that we not be
required to file an amended Form
10-K for fiscal year ended December 31, 2004 or an amended Form 10-Q for the
fiscal quarter
ended March 31, 2005 for
this correction.
8.
Please
comply with the comments above as applicable to this quarterly report on
Form 10-Q.
Please see our comments in the
responses above for Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2005, filed
on May 5, 2005.
The
Company acknowledges that:
·
The
Company is responsible for the adequacy and accuracy of the disclosure in
the filings;
·
Staff
comments or changes to disclosure in response to staff comments do not
foreclose the Commission from taking any action with respect to the
filings; and
·
The
Company may not assert staff comments as a defense in any proceeding
initiated by the Commission or any person under the federal securities
laws of the United States.
If you
have any questions you can contact me at (913) 831-9977. I will be unavailable
from May