Auditors Query Albania Electricity Firm's Data

A group of independent auditors hired by Albania's electricity distribution network operator OSHEE, to audit its financial statements for 2014, has refused to give an opinion, noting inconsistencies in the data.

The unaudited financial statements of the company shows that in 2014 revenues jumped to 47.2 billion leks (?337 million) from 37.7 billion leks (?269 million) in 2013.

"Our responsibility is to give an opinion on the financial statements based on the auditing. We have conducted our auditing based on International Auditing Standards," the auditors report, obtained by BIRN, says.

"But we were unable to secure enough data to create a basis for this opinion," it adds.

Auditors noted disrepancies between the company's billing system and its financial statements for 2014 that neither the management nor the auditors could explain.

They said the company's assets were not accurately registered in the national property register, claimed inventories were poorly kept and noted that conflicting claims from third parties were not satisfactorily resolved.

Answering a query from BIRN, OSHEE said its problems were inherited from the time when the company was under the ownership of the CEZ Group.

"The fact that the auditors refuse to offer an opinion did not have to do with the accuracy of the financial data but with the fact that the OSHEE has been in negative territory for years and with the problem of unregistered assets of the company," OSHEE said in its reply.

The company said that it was working on improving its inventory reports and on registering its properties but warned that the process would not be finished within this year.

OSHEE has has a troubled history since it was created back in 2007 as an independent...