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PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
160 Federal Street
Boston, MA 02110-9862
December 13, 2000
To the Board of Trustees and Shareholders of Liberty Funds Trust III
In planning and performing our audits of the financial statements of Liberty
Newport Global Equity Fund, Liberty Newport Global Utilities Fund, Liberty
Select Value Fund, and Liberty Newport International Equity Fund (the "Funds")
for the year ended October 31, 2000, we considered their internal control,
including control activities for safeguarding securities, in order to determine
our auditing procedures for the purpose of expressing our opinion on the
financial statements and to comply with the requirements of Form N-SAR, not to
provide assurance on internal control.
The management of the Funds is responsible for establishing and maintaining
internal control. In fulfilling this responsibility, estimates and judgments by
management are required to assess the expected benefits and related costs of
controls. Generally, controls that are relevant to an audit pertain to the
entity's objective of preparing financial statements for external purposes that
are fairly presented in conformity with generally accepted accounting
principles. Those controls include the safeguarding of assets against
unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition.
Because of inherent limitations in internal control, errors or fraud may occur
and not be detected. Also, projection of any evaluation of internal control to
future periods is subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate
because of changes in conditions or that the effectiveness of their design and
operation may deteriorate.
Our consideration of internal control would not necessarily disclose all matters
in internal control that might be material weaknesses under standards
established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. A
material weakness is a condition in which the design or operation of one or more
of the internal control components does not reduce to a relatively low level the
risk that misstatements caused by error or fraud in amounts that would be
material in relation to the financial statements being audited may occur and not
be detected within a timely period by employees in the normal course of
performing their assigned functions. However, we noted no matters involving
internal control and its operation, including controls for safeguarding
securities, that we consider to be material weaknesses as defined above as of
October 31, 2000.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of management and the
Board of Trustees of Liberty Funds Trust III, and the Securities and Exchange
Commission and is not intended to be and should not be used by anyone other than
these specified parties.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Boston, MA
