Shareholders of the reassurance company, Prima Reassurance Plc will have to wait another few weeks as their management team struggle to finalise their annual financial reports with their Auditors.
The company’s 14th Annual General Meeting was initially scheduled for 26th March 2019. However, through SENS announcement on 1st March 2019, by order of their Prima Board, they advised investors and shareholders that the meeting scheduled for the 26th of March could not be held.
“The company is required to publish and distribute the annual accounts and hold its AGM within ninety days after the end of its financial year ended 31st December 2018 in accordance with the Companies Act and the Securities Act“, acknowledged the Board in a statement issued through their Company Secretary, Choice Corporate Services Limited, on 3rd April 2019 in Lusaka. “The Company has experienced inordinate delays in the publishing of its annual accounts and distribution of the annual report due to prolonged finalization of the 2018 year-end audit process.”
The company’s 2017 annual report indicates Grant Thornton as the company that had the responsibility of that financial year’s annual audit. In their last audit, they had indicated key audit matters that required professional judgement following review of the financial statements. This matter related to Insurance reserves comprising Unearned Premium Reserves (UPR), accruals for claims notified but not yet settled, claims incurred but not yet reported and the related deferred acquisition costs.
The advice rendered to the management of the firm was that “they needed to follow the provisions of the Insurance Act, Pensions and Insurance Authority (PIA) guidelines, past experience and actuarial estimates, coupled with management judgement”, according to the auditor’s statement in the annual report.