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SIGNATURE DENNIS J MCDONNELL
TITLE PRES,CEO & TRUSTEE
KPMG Peat Marwick
Certified Public Accountants
Peat Marwick Plaza
303 East Wacker Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60601-9973
The Board of Trustees and Shareholders of
Van Kampen Merritt Prime Rate Income Trust:
In planning and performing our audit of the financial statements of Van Kampen
Merritt Prime Rate Income Trust (the "Fund") for the year ended July 31 1994,
we considered its internal control structure, including procedures 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 the internal
control structure.
The management of the Fund is responsible for establishing and maintaining an
internal control structure. In fulfilling this responsibility, estimates and
judgments by management are required to assess the expected benefits and
related costs of internal control structure policies and procedures. Two of
the objectives of an internal control structure are to provide management with
reasonable, but not absolute, assurance that assets are safeguarded against
loss from unauthorized use or disposition and that transactions are executed
in accordance with management's authorization and recorded properly to permit
the preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted
accounting principles.
Because of inherent limitations in any system of internal control structure,
errors or irregularities may occur and not be detected. Also, projection of
any evaluation of the structure to future periods is subject to the risk that
it may become inadequate because of changes in conditions or that the
effectiveness of the design and operation may deteriorate.
Our consideration of the internal control structure would not necessarily
disclose all matters in the internal control structure 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 the specific internal control structure elements does not reduce
to a relatively low level the risk that errors or irregularities 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 the internal control structure, including procedures for
safeguarding securities, that we consider to be material weaknesses as defined
above as of July 31, 1994.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of management and
the Securities and Exchange Commission.
___________________________________________
KPMG Peat Marwick LLP
September 20, 1994
WARNING: THE EDGAR SYSTEM ENCOUNTERED ERROR(S) WHILE PROCESSING THIS SCHEDULE.
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