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The Board of Trustees of Putnam Investment Funds and
Shareholders of Putnam Research Fund
In planning and performing our audits of the financial
statements of the Putnam Research Fund, for the year ended
July 31, 2000, we considered its 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 Putnam Investment 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 accounting principles
generally accepted in the United States of America. Those
controls include the safeguarding of assets against
unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition.
Because of inherent limitations in internal control, errors or
irregularities may occur and not be detected. Also,
projection of any evaluation of internal control 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 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 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 internal control and
its operation, including controls for safeguarding securities,
that we consider to be material weaknesses as defined above as
of July 31, 2000.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of
management, the Board of Trustees of the Putnam Investment
Funds, and the Securities and Exchange Commission and is not
intended to be and should not be used by anyone other than
these specified parties.
KPMG
Boston, Massachusetts
August 31, 2000
