STAFF REPORTER
THE Auditor General Junior Kandjeke has flagged the Namibia Broadcasting Corporation‘s (NBC) financial status for failing to meet the company’s true financial value.
Kandjeke gave the state broadcaster an adverse audit opinion in the latest report presented to parliament this week.
An adverse audit opinion is a statement made by an auditor indicating that a company’s financial statements are materially misstated and do not present a true and fair view of the company’s financial position. This means the auditor has found significant errors or irregularities that affect the overall financial picture, making the statements misleading
Kandjeke said the NBC financial statements failed to disclose shareholder funding.
“The Corporation received operational subsidies of N$ 372 million and N$ 334 million from the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology that were accounted for as government grants in the statement of comprehensive income instead of equity in the statement of changes in equity as per the requirements.
“The subsidies were made by the government whilst acting in their capacity as shareholders of the entity. Consequently, the auditors could not obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence with regards to the presentation and disclosure of shareholder funding and related financial statement areas in the annual financial statements,” Kandjeke said.
He added that, “…the NBC will require N$ 499 Million excluding decoders, to increase the network coverage from 74.5 percent to 92.6 percent. This comprises N$ 183.9 million outstanding Huawei invoices, N$ 168 Million for Civil Works, and Transmitter equipment to be ordered and the exchange loss of N$ 95 Million as per the Huawei agreement.”
According to Kandjeke the DTT Television coverage of the NBC is standing at 74.5 percent and NBC owes Huawei an amount of N$ 184 million for equipment that were ordered and manufactured as per the DIT Migration Project.
“There is no recognition and disclosure of the outstanding amount of N$ 184 million in the annual financial statements in accordance with the requirements and no sufficient appropriate evidence was provided regarding the outstanding invoices or how the outstanding amount was ascertained,” Kandjeke said.
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