Petrojam – Did not reconcile products received vs. volume ordered before paying suppliers

Auditor General's Findings

In December 2018, the Auditor General’s Department (AuGD) published a ‘Compendium of a Review of Aspects of Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ) and a Comprehensive Audit of Petrojam Limited’.

This audit found that Petrojam does not have an efficient system to reconcile the volume of products received against the volume ordered, upon the transfer of products from ships to its storage tanks. Consequently, Petrojam made payments for the volumes stated on the suppliers’ invoices without verifying the actual volumes received.

In keeping with industry practice, Petrojam used independent cargo surveyors to gauge the actual volume of products off-loaded by observing the pre and post-product volume readings of the ship. However, this method of reading does not accurately compensate for temperature adjustment, which normally results in a disparity between the observed volume off-loaded and the volume actually received. These factors would have accounted for its inventory inaccuracies.