By Dipo Olowookere
The presence of a critical opinion of auditors in the audited financial statements of R.T. Briscoe Nigeria Plc has caused the delay in filing the results to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
The company disclosed this in a statement issued to the exchange to explain the reason for the delay in publishing the results to allow shareholders to know its financial status as at December 31, 2019.
In the notice, R.T. Briscoe Nigeria said though its board approved the documents on August 4, 2020, and submitted them to the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC), the auditor’s note in the financial statements under the Emphasis of Matter was made the agency to ask more questions, the reason for the delay.
Business Post reports that Emphasis of Matter is a paragraph slotted in financial statements to highlight important matters appropriately presented or disclosed in the statements, which, in the auditor’s professional judgment, would help in the understanding of the financial statements.
It is commonly required when a company has a change in an accounting principle or if the auditor believes an event is fundamental to users’ understanding of the financial statements. Also, it is used if the external auditor wants an issue to be critically checked.
R.T. Briscoe was one of the six companies barred from trading its shares on the local exchange on Tuesday because it failed to file its reports as required by the listing rules.
In reaction, the firm released the statement to explain the reason for the delay.
“R.T. Briscoe Nigeria Plc wishes to notify the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), its shareholders and the investing public that its audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2019, were approved by the board on August 4, 2020, and have since been submitted to the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC) for regulatory review by our auditors [but it has been delayed] because of the presence of Emphasis of Matter in the audit opinion.
“As a consequence of the provisions of the exchange’s listing rules dealing with quarterly financial statements which prelude the company from announcing subsequent interim accounts without having first filed its last AFS, though ready, the company has been unable to file the unaudited financial statements for the first and second quarters of 2020.
“The company regrets any inconvenience the delay might cause and is confident that the regulatory review at the FRC, though beyond its control, would be completed shortly and the 2019 AFS and the UFS will be filed with the exchange at the latest on or before September 30, 2020,” the MD/CEO of the company, Mr Seyi Onajide, said in the notice.
