Tough Love (Book 2)

41. Future in Planning

~Leon Kelly~

I sat down with a sigh and dropped my crutches beside me. I rubbed my temples in frustration. My fellow shareholders were not agreeing with my plan for the company in the year ahead. I was looking at the financials the other day and I realised we were really wasting money on small useless things and its costing us.

Employees aren't earning as they should, the money we spend on fuel is shocking. I don't know what policies Ryan had in place because it seems like we're paying for fuel for the whole company. The numbers just aren't making sense. I just had a meeting with the CFO and he said everything seemed fine to him. We were making profits and shareholders are happy with their dividends.

I'm not happy though.

I picked up phone on my desk and called my PA. "How can I help Mr Kelly?"

"Nonhlanhla, could you please bring me the financial statements for the past five years."

"Anything else?"

"Bring yourself as well, I need to voice my frustration."

She chuckled, "I'll be right there."

"Thank you."

A few minutes later, my office door was opened. "Leon."

"Hi."

Nonhlanhla took a seat in front of me and placed the files on my desk. "Financial statements between 2014 to the 2018 midyear inspection."

"Thanks," I sighed flicking each open to the income statement.

I analysed from the most recent statement to the oldest. Then something clicked in the back of my mind.

"Hmm..." I hummed.

"Problem?"

I looked at her. I then turned the 2014 statement so it faced her. "Take a look at this... the other operating expense total. Also take notice of how many expenses we have." I then showed her the 2018. "Then take a look at the same line here also keeping in mind the number of expenses."

Her eyes quickly widened. "Geez!" She held the file upright in front of her then sighed, "Ok but... that is normal considering how much the company has grown over the years. Right?"

"Okay... fair point. But... I know numbers. I know how to get them to tell me a story. And these numbers are telling me something fishy is going on here."

Nonhlanhla stared at me blankly. "How?"

I smiled. "By using a high school technique. I just do a simple calculation. Percentage operating expense on operating profit... for 2014..." I wrote down the answer I got. "And for 2018..." I wrote the answer and compared. I let out a sigh, "Would you look at that," I stated showing her my calculation.

"In 2014," I began explaining, "only 39% of our income was spent on paying for expenses. In midyear 2018 however, a whopping 89% of our income was spent on covering expenditure. But somehow the net profit still looks good. How is this possible? Lets take a look at interest income and income tax. Those numbers look strange. How did SARS not pick that up?

"Let me tell you. Someone is playing with numbers. And the person who's signature is on these statements are, the CFO, who I just had a nice fat chat with. He said everything looked good and I'm starting to wonder if he actually checked before signing off."

Nonhlanhla looked at me, "This is serious."

"I know!"

"Cant the company be sued because of this?"