Petronas is saying its financial statements are available to the public. True, they have the annual reports published on their website. But these provide only brief summary figures e.g. revenue, profit before tax, etc – not detailed breakdowns.
As mentioned earlier, I would like to see the detailed accounts, not summary figures for revenue and profit before tax. I want to see the administrative and operating expenses, the other misc expenses. Let’s have a look at the detailed profit and loss acount.
Published accounts offer only summary figures and are not of much use to anyone wanting to analyse the financial performance of the company in greater depth.
In particular, let’s have figures for how much was spent over the years for the following:
- Development of Putrajaya
- Bailout of banks
- Construction of Petronas Towers
- the Philharmonic Orchestra
- Donations, commissions, management fees, consulting fees etc
- Entertainment expenses
- Formula One racing and related expenses
- Amounts spent on acquiring companies or assets owned by BN-related parties e.g. Petronas’ MISC rescuing Mirzan Mahathir’s loan-saddled shipping and haulage businesses
- Expenses related to Pulau Langkawi activities
Petronas belongs to the Malaysian people. We are entitled to these detailed figures. We should not be treated like corporate shareholders entitled only to the bare minimum information about a company.
Meanwhile, tell us how much Petronas earned for the year ended 31 March 2008. The figures should be available by now.
Don’t need to show because in bolehland there is also a tak bolih clause for matters like this.
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Not in a million years. Love, BN.
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Come on get serious will you, they have all the billions (kept away somewhere). Don’t ask them accounts again as will get spastic attacks and that won’t look good for our ailing Government.
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[...] Fellow blogger, Anil Netto posted in his blog, on this similar issue. To read further, click here. [...]
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Hi anil. I understand your concern. And looking at the points that you put forward, and how Petronas money was spent on those development project (Twin Towers, etc). Most of there projects were handled during Tun Mahathir’s time… So I doubt it would be so easy for it to be publicized. Knowing Tun Mahathir…. he is so keen to open up others’ faults, but when it comes to this, I wonder what else Tun M will have to say about this.
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Dear Anil
I have had a look at the 1/2 yearly a/cs (Sep 07, unaudited) and y/e 31.3.2007 a/cs, where auditors name and report are not stated.
These are the abridged a/cs.
They don’t give you detailed P&L or how uch goe in subsidies besides oil & what investments have been w/down or w/off.
So, ther’s no way we or any MP or Govt can tell if transparency is adequate.
So, yes Petronas does publish its a/cs but a lot is obscured that an independent audit may uncover.
This is not what we are talking about when we ask for details.
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Agreed. and if/when it does, I shall await your professional analysis on it.
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Anil
I have perused these financial statements found at Petronas’ website – specifically for years 2007 & 2006. I am an Accountant by profession, and let me say, that the figures shown are so simplified that, they are not really Annual Reports in the true sense of the word. Peruse any of the Annual Reports found at Bursa Malaysia’s website, and any investor/finance based person would tell you, whatever is shown is just the “front page” section. This therefore makes the statement from Mohd Hassan Merican, laughable. on Pg 8 of the Star (17/6/08), he is quoted: “The accounts from 2002…are listed there.” Rubbish. Accounts would mean the full set with a Income & Expenditure Starement, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement, Notes to the Accounts & the Auditors’ report. He is also quoted : “the Standard of the Report surpassed the requirements of the Companies Commission of Malaysia.” Again, a load of bull. Eg – for the year 2007, the index page states that the financial statements are from pages 81-165. But the report downloaded was only up to page 80. It is the same for year 2006. So, what bull is he talking about when he says that the report has greater compliance than that of CCM’s requirements? I wish I can submit that type of simplified accounts when I file my financial statements with the CCM!!
This type of PR statemements are so ridiculous. And to think that they come from the Chairman of the largest company in the Country!
Even more ridiculous, that a paper like The Star does not vet through his statements to verify its accuracy!
This is all the more
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Anil,
At the same breath, he tries to deflect an email initiative to boycott petronas by saying that they are not the largest, and claiming that Shell is. Well, he told half truths. In total, Petronas has the highest number of retail stations ( over 3000 retail stations) , overtaking Shell last year. If counting only number of stations operated by principal, then he is right.
“Petronas stations account for about 30% of fuel sold in the country. The largest retail station owner is Shell with over 1,200 stations.”
His PR guys should be sacked for trying to use this. The industry have the right figures..
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And how much it has spent on ‘educational wastage’. Meaning, giving scholarships to those who did not return to serve or failed in the courses.
Give us the racial breakdown of the recipients.
My daughter who is in US informed me how Petronas sponsored students live a life of luxury in the US with their hefty allowance. Money meant for books go for entertainment.
And some are planning to get married and settle down there.
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dear amoker,
thanks for this revelation. keep ‘em coming, u people in-the-know. check(mate) petronas until they come clean.
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Need some verification it is said that petronas has a billion ringgit worth of undeveloped land for petrol pumps.By the way this hassan chap (allegedly) has a vineyard in south africa.
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Read this… help to explain where the money goes to… don’t get me wrong I don’t work 4 Petronas OK
The Hardest Thing To Say To Someone
Do what you like.
The price of gasoline at the petrol station is set by the Government, not PETRONAS.
PETRONAS has done its patriotic duty by paying the dividends, royalties, corporate tax, petroleum tax etc to the Government for YOUR benefit (rakyat lah).
And bear in mind that 30% of its revenue comes from overseas operations, thus bringing in foreign exchange to the country.
OK. Assuming that you buy this idea proposed by whoever it was.
So PETRONAS will have reduced revenues. Bear in mind that the costs of operations are also increasing. So the profits are reduced. Then PETRONAS and other oil companies pay less taxes.
Then the Government will have less revenue. (Note: at least 40% of Government revenue for 2007 came from the oil industry). With less revenue, there will be less Government projects (you can then forget about bridges and highways, and rail tracks, and smart schools and not-so-smart universities, and hospitals, etc). So contractors and consultants, and con-sultans and con-cronies will cry and scream. Makan batu lah..
The Government has already announced freezing of recruitment. So, many new graduates will be unemployed. Makan batu lagi. Maggi mee pun tak mampu dah.
Later, all sorts of allowances for civil servants will have to be withdrawn. Treasury tak cukup duit.
On top of that the oil industry may have to scale back many of its new investments, totaling about 45 billion ringgit over the next few years. Contractors, service providers, steel fabricators, maritime service providers etc will join the ratapan tangisan – no jobs.
Don’t forget that PETRONAS is sponsoring thousands of students in universities and even high schools – at any one time there are more than 4,500 university students being sponsored by PETRONAS in Malaysian universities and overseas. Also more than 2,000 high school children receive minor scholarships – children of poor families.
Kalau PERTRONAS tak ada duit, kesian lah mereka di atas tu. Shall I ask them to see the proposer of this idea (to boycott PETRONAS) and seek help from them instead?
So, it is to YOUR benefit that you make sure PETRONAS keeps making enough money to support YOUR Government so that your children can continue to go to school without paying for fees and books, and to go to universities at peanuts rates.
CONCLUSION: Help yourself and your family and your country by making sure that PETRONAS keeps making profits. Go to the nearest PETRONAS station and fill up now!!
Don’t forget that if you go to non-Petronas station, the profits that these companies get will go their shareholders OVERSEAS.
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fendi, finally a voice of reason. I find that most of us just have a herd mentality. Price of petrol goes up… it must be Petronas’ fault. How simplistic and idiotic.
In the oil & gas industy, Petronas is highly regarded. It is, after all, the oil company with one of the highest profit margins in the world. You don’t achieve that distinction by being corrupted and inefficient.
In fact, Petronas is regarded in the industry as one of the New Seven Sisters. This refers to mostly state-owned oil corporations such as Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, Brazil’s Petrobras and Russia’s Gazprom which will overtake the old giants of yesteryears.
When Petronas hands over its profits to its master, the PM, how the hell do you expect it to control what the PM wants to spend it on?
The culprit here is not Petronas. It is the BN government. People, please wake up!
P.S. I don’t work for Petronas either.
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dear anil, i seriously don’t think the answer lies in the petronas account. Petronas is audited by EY and KPMG jointly. I don’t think there will be anything extraordinary in the income statement because these will be expenses reflecting Petronas’s activities.
However, what i picked up from the abridged accounts is that there is some RM30b gap between their Profit After Tax and movement in shareholders’ funds.
I am guessing this RM30b has been paid out of equity by way of dividends, eg to the government. so if you really want to see how this monies paid our are being handled, we really need to look at the federal governments’ books.
this is my 2pennies, from one CA to another. cheers
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In the wake of th e$120 million futures trading losses in the Sime Darby Group which is also audited by 1 or 2 of the Big 4, you guys must be pretty naive to think that Petronas would have escaped the odd multi-million $ unsuual losses or two, buried somewhere in all the ovehead expenses shown, not in detail, but netted of.
The point i sthat in my opinion it is illegal for Petronas accounts not to be published and submiiited in full to Parliament, after an independent audit or, at th every least, athorough by the Auditor General.
Of course, there is that other side of the equation as to where all Petronas’ PAT has gone to. There are Loans & Debts of about $30 billion. Besides that, are all its investments stated ar realisable value, with adequate provisions for impairment in values? How much has been written off over the years and who is answerable for bad investments?
It is pathetic that we should all be shooting in the dark, especially over what the Govt does with all these taxes and dividends from Petronas and what else is being subsidised that we do not know about.
This is why the govt must not pay lip service to the issue of transparency of Petronas’ accounts and allow the acting Chairman/President/CEO of many year’s tenure to indulge in what appears to be half-truths, spin & plain obfuscation.
It’s too dangerous to allow 1 person to have so much control over the Nation’s main asset.
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Anil
I see the sequence of events as like this:
1. Petronas makes profit
2. Petronas ‘remits’ 80% of profit to the government and retains 20% for opex and capex.
I can see that a lot of us are overly excited to see how Petronas spent the 20%.
Yet, the bigger question is that how did the government spent the 80%? I dont think so that Petronas will be able to answer this question. I bet that Petronas wouldnt know either.
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Anil,
Below is the comment I made to Anwar. I also felt so upset after watching the Petronas Pres. on NTV& tonight, clearly evading a lot of clear answers; and one of his remark was that Petronas is only accountable to the PM?! What, excuse me? I sent a few SMS but none are published! Here is the letter:
YB Encik Anwar,
Saya harap PR dapat menyiasat apa yang sebenarnya terjadi kepada keuntungan telaga minyak-gas yang terbesar di Asia Tenggara yang mula beroperasi di Kikeh, Sabah, Jan tahun lepas? Apa yang ditulis dalam media (dalam kolumn yang amat kecil),tender peggalian sepenuhnya diberikan kepada syarikat Murphy Oil dari Amerika. Ini bermakna Petronas hanya berhak mendapat keuntungan 10%. Saya tak berapa faham ekonomi; mungkin pihak PR boleh membuat penyisatan yang lebih lanjut. Adakah pemberian tender sepenuhnya kepada syarikat Amerika bermakna 50-50 antara syarikat tersebut dan ahli politik yang tamak…? Sebab itu tidak mahu beri Petronas tender sepenuhnya?!Di samping itu telaga minyak-gas baru dijumpai di Samporna; apa kisahnya pun rakyat tak diberitahu. Walaupun saya bukan pakar ekonomi, kalau kita mempunyai minyak-gas yang sebegini banyak; mengapa harga minyak boleh naik? Bahkan, sepatutnya setiap rakyat Malaysia berhak hidup senang bahkan! Maka PR harus menuntut supaya setiap penyelenggaraan dan tender telaga minyak-gas mesti didedahkan – berapa keuntungan, apa nama syarikat yang menggali dan mengapa Petronas tidak diberikan hak sepenuh tender penggalian sekiranya itu yang berlaku. Bukanakah Petronas syarikat global yang menggali di peringkat global, termasuk di Afrika – apa dah jadi dengan semua keuntungannya; semua ini harus didedahkan pada rakyat!
Noor Aza Othman.
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all of your allegations are baseless. put some figures then you can say something. I would agree with Izkandar, the bigger question is how did the govt spent the 80%?
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First, ger rid of OSA. Then, bring in the external auditors to scrutinize everything in the books, bank accounts transactions/transfers, etc., not just account statements.
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I also agree that the answers we need will not be in the petronas accounts. It will show how much has been given/paid to the gov’t as agreed. How do we access (information)that is what we need to know. The PKFZ (Port Klang) reportedly a while back has some sort of bail out by the gov’t (RM4.6b) or was it just a loan? That’s possibly where and how the government is spending part of the money.
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according to wikipedia, Petronas has 870 stations nationwide in Jan 2008. amoker, where did your 3000 figure come from?
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donplaypuaks: but you see there is nothing illegal about Sime Darby Group making that futures loss! The auditors’ responsibility is to make sure the loss has been properly accounted for and appropriately disclosed in their financial statements. Surely in every business there are risk and consequences!
Please remember that an auditors’ primary responsibility is to state an opinion on the truth and fairness of the numbers represented in the financial statements and a Company’s compliance with company’s act.
So PLEASE don’t imply that a Company’s performance (especially losses arising from futures!) has got anything to do with the auditor. LOL
the auditors present the numbers. it’s up to the shareholders & management to decide on governance and performance!
but i would still insist, really, i don’t think you will find any exciting answers in petronas’s accounts!
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Anybody knows WTF it costs to gali one barrel?
In ’80s it cost about 1/20.
Much obliged.
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There’re a few of you here who are QUICK to sympathies with PETROLAH.
There’s one simple & quick test to quantify who’s on the right track.
Question:
Who is suffering now?
YOU or PETROLAH Bosses?
Please spare us the sympathy for these lackeys who’re nothing more than a ATM jaga/guard for a certain politial party, as Anil has stated clearly we’re just examining the ‘details’ of the accounts since the arrogant PETROLAH bosses kept harping on having ‘Nothing to Hide’ over the MSM. PETROLAH is the nation’s wealth and it is our duty to know it is manage prudently and to tell us otherwise while we’re being bled dry, than you must be one heck of a lackey for them.
thank you, Anil for opening the right valve.
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