Ceres Inc. fired its accounting firm Feb. 23 during a disagreement over a “going concern” statement in Ceres’ 2015 annual report.

Ceres, a Thousand Oaks-based ag-biotech company, made the announcement in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing says Ceres hired Los Angeles-based Marcum as its new independent accountant and dismissed its old accountant, KPMG.

Ceres fired KPMG because of a disagreement over issues concerning language in its past two yearly reports.

“KPMG’s reports contained a paragraph stating that ‘The Company incurred recurring losses and expects the current level of cash and cash equivalents will only be sufficient to fund operations until January 2016 which raises substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern. Management’s plans in regard to these matters are also described in note 1. The consolidated financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty,’” Cere’s Feb. 23 filing said.

KPMG’s conclusion appeared several times in Ceres’ 2014 and 2015 annual reports. Ceres officials did not agree with KPMG’s conclusion and decided to make a change.

KMPG said in a statement attached to the filing that it received the dismissal notification today, but was not in a position to judge Ceres’ actions.

“We are not in a position to agree or disagree with Ceres, Inc.’s statements regarding the process to determine the independent registered public accounting firm,” KMPG’s statement read.

• Contact Philip Joens at pjoens@pacbiztimes.com.