DP World has declined a request made by the shipping industry to carry out an audit at its Vallarpadam terminal by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), with the company stating that it is not liable to have the audit performed at the terminal, according to the Arabian Supply Chain.
It was previously reported that DP World’s Port of Jebel Ali had won an award of excellence in the category of terminal operations at the recent Navis World Inspire Awards ceremony in San Francisco in the US.
A port official was quoted as saying: “We are also examining an earlier case where there is a Supreme Court verdict allowing the CAG to audit a PPP project.”
Despite calls to carry out the audit, the terminal operator has seen positive results in its performance levels in recent months, with a 24% increase in profit levels for 2014.
This is against the backdrop of Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Chairman of DP World’s comments that customer focus has enabled it to achieve international growth.
Among the projects it is currently involved with is the expansion of a container terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT), where the operator intends to expand its container terminal capacity by around 800,000 TEU.
It has also purchased the Prince Rupert Container Terminal in Canada for more than US$450 million in a bid to boost its global business portfolio.
The Dubai government has decided to proceed on the launch of a new terminal operator, P&O ports, as a way of complementing Dubai’s overall presence in the market place via the instruction of DP World.