Greenland Airports came to calculate its revenue for 2023 over DKK 51 million higher in the accounts than it was in reality. This is shown by Sermitsiaq’s continued review of the airport group’s accounts.
The error is included in the annual report for 2024, which includes a statement of the group in 2023. The figure has been repeated up to the latest annual report.
Greenland Airports came to calculate its revenue for 2023 over DKK 51 million higher in the accounts than it was in reality. This is shown by Sermitsiaq’s continued review of the airport group’s accounts.
The error is included in the annual report for 2024, which includes a statement of the group in 2023. The figure has been repeated up to the latest annual report.
It appears from the figures that the group turnover for 2023 was calculated at DKK 515.5 million. But this figure includes DKK 51.25 million too much.
The amount in question covers trade between the group’s own companies.
– We have reviewed the situation in more detail and can confirm that certain intra-group items have not been eliminated correctly in the consolidated accounts, confirms CFO Per Stjærnholm Trærup in his reply to Sermitsiaq.
So what went wrong?
It is stated in the Annual Accounts Act that trade between the companies in a group must be deducted when calculating revenue for the entire group.
Otherwise, the group will show revenue from trade with its own companies as part of total sales to the outside world. And that’s exactly what happened here.
– This is a presentation error which only affects the distribution of items over the gross profit. The year’s result, balance sheet and equity are not affected, emphasizes Per Stjærnholm Trærup.
However, the error paints a misleading picture of the group’s revenue development from one year to the next. According to the accounts, revenue fell from 2023 to 2024. But if the 2023 figure is corrected, it is actually a small increase.
Greenland Airports’ response has been prepared together with the company’s auditors from Greenland’s Audit Office. The auditors had no further comments on the error.
20 million skewed equity
But has there been a million dollar error that actually affected equity? The answer is yes, although it was a different time and a different company.
The second error stems from the 2022 accounts of the then Mittarfeqarfiit, which were audited by Deloitte. In 2023, the company was merged into a new company, which today is called Greenland Airports Regional.
This error is not Sermitsiaq’s disclosure. But the media overlooked the mistake then, so it is high time to mention it now.
The mistake was that Mittarfeqarfiit calculated his assets 20.6 million too low. In other words, the company undervalued what it owned. It became important for equity, which is the difference between the book value of what the company owns and what it owes.
The incorrect information was corrected in the new limited company’s first annual report, which covered the financial year 2023 and was approved at the general meeting in 2024.
Specifically, the error was, among other things, that certain assets had been written down without regard to their sale value. Even if an airport makes a loss in itself, there may still be a car, boat or similar at the airport that is worth money.
Therefore, the value of this kind still needs to be disclosed, and the accounts did not sufficiently take this into account. In addition, some current construction works were also incorrectly written down.
And thus there were “significant errors” for 20.6 million in the 2022 accounts.
In comparison, the 20.6 million corresponded to approximately 12 percent of the equity capital of DKK 170 million that the company contributed to the new limited company.
