Introduction
Last Sunday (February 25) Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (BTI) published the summary of its financial statements as required by the Financial Institutions Act; the annual report was also recently mailed out to shareholders. This is well in advance of the six months stipulated by the Companies Act and Securities Industry (Disclosure by Reporting Issuers) Regulations 2002 and the four months stipulated by the Securities Industry Act (SIA). One wonders why, over four years after the SIA and the subsidiary regulations made thereunder came into force they are still allowed to co-exist with such an inconsistency.
At the risk of making the same observation every time I carry out an analysis I cannot emphasise the importance of up-to-date and accurate financial information. The Directors and Management and staff should feel pleased with their accomplishment: BTI is the first company traded on the stock exchange with a December year end to publish their annual report this year.
Unfortunately, the rapid gestation of the report may be in part responsible for several (admittedly minor) errors and omissions. The annual report has an addendum in respect of the appointment of a director to fill a casual vacancy. The capitalisation of the “Financial HigHligHts” heading on page 20 had me reading it three times trying to figure out what was wrong with the spelling (nothing as it turns out if the capitalisation is ignored). The auditor’s report gives a clean bill of health in respect of the accounts “set out on pages
