00:00N.F.M. is not a parlor. And I don't even think a parlor could be run like this.
00:11There appears to be more in the mill than in the parcel, as while N.F.M. is reporting decreased revenues year on year,
00:18the state entity is simultaneously reporting liabilities almost twice the value of its profits.
00:24I am astounded, flabbergasted, that this company called N.F.M. could have, at the end of 2023,
00:36$66 million in outstanding receivables. What is N.F.M. doing about that?
00:49N.F.M. CEO sought to explain that the company offers credit to its low-risk bulk customers.
00:56We are learning that, you know what, if you want to play in the big leagues with the big boys,
01:03you can't ask them for your money tomorrow. You have to be willing to sit with them and negotiate a different type of payment terms.
01:13But the CEO further clarified that the $66 million does not necessarily represent monies that are past due,
01:20as clients have timeframes within which to pay. The committee has requested a list of all clients owing N.F.M.
01:27Meantime, N.F.M. is reporting an increase in profits due to efficiency and cost-cutting measures.
01:35is that we moved away from a reliance on U.S. dollar debt to T.T. dollar debt.
01:42And I'm happy to report, as of March of this year, N.F.M. has no debt on its books.
01:49And that is largely because of the overall performance of the business, which you will see in terms of the profitability of the business,
01:58having grown to $35 million from $7 million between 2022 to 2023.
02:06But committee chairman Reed Marks still found N.F.M.'s performance to be paltry at best.
02:11I'm not getting a sense of seriousness as it relates to a very important state enterprise
02:24that is supposed to be generating gross profits of some $92 million for what I'm seeing here.
02:35And your net profit is just about six in 22. I only go to 20, 21. It was just about 1.3 or thereabouts.
02:48Performance issues aside, the committee also raised operational and compliance concerns,
02:54as N.F.M. has been without an internal auditor for some time.
02:58And the state entity has not submitted minutes to its line ministry, the Ministry of Trade or the Ministry of Finance in years,
03:06based on legal advice received decades ago.
03:09We are not getting any reports based on the monitoring manual from the state entity
03:14because of legal advice that was provided that they don't need to support documents as in the manual to the investment division.
03:24However, that legal advice that N.F.M. received is the only review by the Ministry of Finance.
03:30But N.F.M. has some good news for its shareholders, the members of the public.
03:36We have no intention to increase prices to the people of Trinidad and Tobago.
03:40But again, we do not control the price of wheat on the international market,
03:46but we do our best to insulate the people of Trinidad and Tobago and our customers elsewhere.
03:54Renassa Cutting, TV6 News.
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