The crash of an online server has been highlighted as the reason the CEPEP company failed to submit its financial statements for the years 2015 straight up to present.

CEO Keith Eddy appeared before a Public Accounts Committee of Parliament on Wednesday, where he explained that a change in staff made verifying the existing records a challenge once the files were eventually recovered.

Meanwhile, Senior Financial Officer Gary Stoddard told the Committee the new auditor had some issues to iron out with the 2015 document, which must be fixed in order to complete the follow-up years.

“Given that we did not get the working papers from the past auditors, we had to provide the current external auditors about the figures. That is in process right now. It should be noted that the opening balances will trickle its way all the way down to current. So once we get past that initial hurdle all should be well ,” Mr. Stoddard said.

The explanation by both men failed to satisfy the Committee.

“That has become a stuck record, literally. We are talking about in July of 2022, a commitment was given to this committee that the 2016/2017 financial audited accounts would be submitted. We are now in March (2023) and you are telling me you are in the process of completing it. This is totally indefensible, it is inexcusable and it is intolerable. I think CEPEP has now gone rogue. You have spent close to $1.5 billion from 2015-2021 and you have to spend another close to $300million for 2023 and you are telling the taxpayers of this country that you are in the process of accounting for 2015,” Chairman Wade Mark said. 

He was challenged by CEO Eddy, who said he disagreed with the position that the failure to submit the documents were due to non-compliance and instructed his Senior Financial Officer to delve more into the challenge the company was facing.

“In our defence, all our financials, all our management accounts up to 2021 have been completed. All our monthly and quarterly accounts that are due to the Ministry of Finance and Rurral Development have been submitted. The challenges that we are facing…we have inherited the issue and working assiduously to get over those issues. Every request of our current external auditors are being attended to. We simply do not have the working papers, as a matter of fact they refused to hand over the documents,” Mr. Stoddard explained.

The accounting firm which refused to hand over the documents was identified as Hardys & Associates.