NATIONAL Petroleum Marketing Company Ltd (NP) chairman Sahid Hosein says the company is in a profitable position.
He was answering questions from Public Accountants Enterprises Committee (PAEC) chairman Wade Mark about NP’s financial affairs at a meeting between the PAEC and officials of NP, the Energy and Finance Ministries at the Red House, Port of Spain on Wednesday.
The meeting was held to discuss NP’s financial statements for fiscal 2018 and 2019.
Referring to a document in his hand, Mark asked Hosein and other NP officials some questions. “Is NP a ward of the state? Is NP bankrupt and possibly bordering on the verge of insolvency?” Mark said NP reported a loss of $28 million at the end of 2017.
This was followed by losses of $7 million and $46 million in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Mark said all of this happened before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“Could someone give me a current reality to give this committee some comfort that we are sailing safely into harbour and we don’t have to toss anything overboard in order for us to save the ship from capsizing?”
He asked NP officials to indicate whether the company recorded a profit or a loss at the end of last year.
Hosein said, “NP operates on very slim margins, which are dictated by the Government through the Ministry of Energy.”
He added that since 2016, the company has not received any funding from the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) to undertake any significant capital expenditure. But despite those challenges, Hosein said, NP is in a good financial position. “We are in a profitable position since 2022.”
NP finance manager Joy John-Benjamin supported Hosein’s position. Thanks to increases in its operating margins in 2020, she said, NP reported a profit of $19.5 million. John-Benjamin said subsequent increases in these margins over time have placed the company on a trajectory towards profitability.
Mark asked about the timeliness of NP signing contracts with its clients. He identified a contract for aviation fuel between NP and Rubis Caribbean (January 1, 2019-December 2021) and Caribbean Airlines (January 2018-December 2018) as examples.
The latter, Mark continued, was signed on January 29, 2019. He said the PAEC had no information on the monetary values of these contracts.
“Why would I give out aviation fuel? Because I have to survive. I am NP. I have to make a profit to survive as a going concern.”
Mark said information provided by NP to the PAEC suggested aviation fuel had been provided to company clients from January 18-December 31, 2018.
But he added, “It was not until almost a year and couple of months later that it (the contract) was signed.”
Mark said a contract between NP and Rubis was not signed until sometime after its commencement.
“Why is this thing happening? Secondly what is the value of these contracts?” He asked for copies of these contracts be provided to the PAEC.
Energy Ministry permanent secretary Pennelope Bradshaw-Niles said those contracts would have been signed by NP and not the ministry
