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SIGNATURE DENNIS J MCDONNELL
TITLE PRES, CEO & TRUSTEE
KPMG Peat Marwick LLP
Peat Marwick Plaza Telephone 312-938-1000 Telefax 312-938-0449
303 East Wacker Drive 312-938-3959
Chicago, IL 60601-5255
The Board of Trustees and Shareholders of
Van Kampen Merritt Trust for Investment Grade California Municipals:
In planning and performing our audit of the financial statements of Van Kampen
Merritt Trust for Investment Grade California Municipals (the "Trust") for
the year ended October 31, 1995, 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 Trust 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 mailers 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
October 31, 1995.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of management and
the Securities and Exchange Commission.
KPMG Peat Marwick LLP
December 5, 1995
Member Firm
Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler
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