Maritime Authority ended 2020 with ¢88m surplus – A-G Report
The 2021 Auditor-General’s report of the audited financial statements of the Ghana Maritime Authority for the year ended 31 December 2020, has revealed that the GMA’s operations for the year under review ended with a surplus of GH¢88,943,474 compared with GH¢70,539,716 recorded in 2019, representing an increase of 26.1%.
Total income for the year was GH¢217,441,329 as against GH¢164,129,088 recorded in 2019.
This represents an improvement of 32.5% and was mainly due to an increase of 34.5% in maritime safety charges from GH¢99,793,853 in 2019 to GH¢134,237,748 in 2020.
Total expenditure also increased by 37.3% from GH¢93,589,372 in 2019 to GH¢128,497,855 in 2020.
The increase was mainly attributable to a 36.8% rise in the administrative and overhead expenses from GH¢89,151,817 in 2019 to GH¢121,917,322 in 2020.
Financial position
Non-current assets, which included intangible assets, went up by 69.1% from GH¢114,111,472 in 2019 to GH¢192,978,551 in 2020.
The rise was due to the acquisition of property, plant and equipment during the year.
Current assets also increased “significantly” by 26.0% from GH¢111,936,137 in 2019 to GH¢141,075,444 in 2020, the report said.
The variation, the report pointed out, was mainly due to an increase of GH¢19,891,109 or 38.7% in trade and other receivables which rose from GH¢51,375,052 in 2019 to GH¢71,266,161 in 2020.
Current liabilities also saw an increase of 148.6% from GH¢12,045,049 in 2019 to GH¢29,944,336 in 2020.
The increase was due to a provision of GH¢14,919,947 made for end of service benefits in 2020.
Non-current liabilities increased to GH¢11,309,453.
This represents a long-term loan procured from Ecobank to finance the construction of office building in Accra, Tema and Takoradi.
The liquidity position of the Authority was 4.7:1 in 2020 as compared with 9.3:1 in 2019.
“This is an indication that the Authority is still in a position to discharge its short-term financial obligations as and when they fall due”, the report noted.