PNG Ports announces 2016 audit results

PNG Ports Corporation Limited (PNG Ports) has again achieved another “unqualified opinion” or “clean audit” from the Auditor General’s Office (AGO) from its audit of its accounts for year ending 2016.
Chairman of PNG Ports Board, I have informed the Board and especially the Shareholder the good news about the “clean audit” at the first annual general meeting (AGM) for 2018 today to present the Audited Accounts and Annual Report for 2016.
“This is largely due to the current Board and Management’s persistence and concerted efforts to fix its accounts. Previous results were disclaimers up until PNG Ports received qualified opinions for its 2012 to 2014 Audited Accounts and in 2015, for the first time ever, PNG Ports received the first unqualified opinion from the AGO.
“This result unequivocally showed that PNG Port’s financial performance in 2016 is accurately reflected in its audited financial statements.
Therefore, the Board and Executive Management of PNG Ports today presented the Audited Accounts, Annual Return and Annual Report for 2016 to its trustee shareholder, Kumul Consolidated Holdings (KCH) for consideration and approval for PNG Ports to lodge these information with the Registrar of Companies consistent with the Companies Act 1997.
“Under my Board and the management leadership of Stanley Alphonse as Managing Director of PNG Ports, we were faced with the daunting task of bringing a backlog of audits up to date amongst other operational requirements. The audits were outstanding from 2009 to 2011 as they were yet to be completed and signed off.
The AGO audit covered financial statements comprising Statement of Financial Position, Statement of Comprehensive Income, Statement of Change in Equity, Statement of Cash Flow and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies and Other Explanatory Notes.
According to the audited accountsfor 2016, PNG Ports had total assets of K1,821,632,271, with a total liabilities at K546,927,531 and net profit after tax at K41,017,69571.
“This is not the first time under my Board and leadership of Alphonse that PNG Ports has achieved significant financial management milestones.
“After years of disclaimer audit opinions, PNG Ports achieved are qualified audit opinion” for the first time for its 2011 accounts with approximately qualifications.
“These qualifications were addressed during 2012 to 2014 with the final qualification being cleared in 2015 resulting in an unqualified audit opinion.”
He said the other significant financial management milestones included agreeing the fixed assets register to the general ledger in 2012, carrying out an asset verification exercise across all ports in 2014 and a revaluation of all its property, plant and equipment assets in 2015.
“Also, we upgraded and implemented the company’s operations systems to Klein which was integrated with the financial system resulting in automation of its invoices across its major ports of Port Moresby, Lae, Madang, Rabaul, Kimbe, and Alotau between 2013 and 2014.
“So, clearly it is a testament to the hard work of the management of PNG Ports under the leadership of Stanley Alphonse for taking proactive steps to be compliant with the requirements of conducting business
in Papua New Guinea,” he said.