Berbice Bridge profit skyrockets in 2011

Sep 23, 2013 News

…company fails to comply with International Reporting Standards – Chris Ram

The Berbice Bridge Company Inc (BBCI) this past week filed its annual returns for 2011 and this document has revealed that the company’s profit was more than 58 per cent more than the previous year, financial analyst, Christopher Ram, says.
According to Ram, the company in 2010 made a profit of $137M, while for 2011 this jumped to $217M.
While the company would have raked in $1.2B, its expenditure for the year stood at $984.3M.

Financial Analyst, Christopher Ram

Ram, has since reported on his website that while the company’s profit margin would have increased, the report “is not without serious questions.”
BBCI is chaired by Keith Evelyn of Hand in Hand, with its other Directors including Avalon Jagnandan and Ravi Ramcharitar of Queens Atlantic Investment Inc (QAII), Egbert Carter, Maurice Solomon and Former Chancellor, Cecil Kennard while Winston Brassington serves as Company Secretary.
Ram lambasted the company and its report signed off by Company Secretary, Winston Brassington, as failing to comply with the International Reporting Standards.
Ram, in his writings has pointed out that in its financial statements, it claims that the “statements have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting (sic) and the requirements of the Companies Act.”
He said too that “In their audit opinion, the company’s auditors TSD Lal & Co also makes the same claim…They are both wrong, very wrong.”
Ram said that this is something he had pointed out when the company filed its 2010 report.
“I pointed out that the basis of accounting used by the company to account for its principal asset or right was not consistent with the rules of accounting or IFRS.”
Ram explained that under the Concession Agreement, the company has the right to operate the Bridge for a period of 21 years, but its financial statements describe the principal business activities of the company as the construction and operation of a floating bridge.
Ram said, while the company has given to lenders a debenture over the Bridge, its real right is not ownership, but one to operate the Bridge.
“It cannot do as it wishes with the Bridge…Such a right is an intangible asset subject to amortization (paying back) over the period of the concession.”

Company Secretary-Berbice Bridge, Winston Brassington

According to Ram, “The issue of accounting, for that right, having been raised publicly last year, the company and its auditors might have been expected to consider and reconsider the accounting treatment of the largest asset and its implication for the profit and loss account.”
He said they did not and therefore allowed very misleading accounts to have passed as IFRS-compliant.
Ram also chided the Company Secretary for his (mis)representation of the National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL).
According to Ram, “he inexplicably failed to report the preference shares or the identity of the owners – the Government – of those shares…In other words, for the public records he pretended that they did not exist.”
This, according to Ram has allowed Government to assume anonymity in the financial statements.
“The holder of the preference shares is being described simply as “an investor,” when in fact this investor is NICIL.
Ram suggested that if Brassington had reported accurately and completely on Government’s shareholding in BBCI, it would have exposed a scheme by the BBCI, its Secretary Brassington (himself) and NICIL which he represents.