Report misleading, defamatory, says Ports

By MALUM NALU
The board and management of PNG Ports Corporation Ltd have described a report in The National on Friday about it taking out bank loans without following any rules as “unbalanced and misleading”.
Board chairman Nathaniel Poya said the report, attributed to Auditor-General Philip Nauga, was “misleading and defamatory”.
He has called on Nauga to retract his statement “as it only contradicts his own opinion issued in 2015”.
“The Auditor-General gave an ‘unqualified’ audit opinion in his 2015 report on PNGPCL accounts, which is audited by an international audit firm, sub-contracted by the Auditor-General,” Poya said.
“The glaring disconnection between the heading and the body of the article is very obvious.
“The body of the story went on to talk about the difference on opinion of accounting treatment, as opposed to any blatant disregard of legal and bureaucratic processes necessary to obtain loans.
“In fact, having an internal accounting policy for the treatment of borrowing cost is not of any consequence if the appropriate accounting standard is the international accounting standard practised by PNGPCL.
“This is the world’s best accounting practice.
“What other standards are there if the international counting standards and generally accepted accounting standards in Papua New Guinea are followed?
“All the borrowings of PNGPCL are prudent and comply with all necessary legal and statutory practices.”