Annual Report
Control Environment
The Company considers the control environment as the foundation for all other components of internal control, providing discipline and structure and influencing the control consciousness of employees. Integrity and high ethical values stem from management’s philosophy and operating style and appropriate recruitment and training practices ensure the competence of the Company’s people. The Company has an organisation structure suitable for its size and responsibilities and reporting lines have been defined in accordance with specified delegation of authority.
Control Activities
Control activities are the policies and procedures that ensure that management directives are carried out. Functions that are separated include those of commercial and technical management, operations, finance and accounting. Segregation of duties is one of the primary controls.
Information and Communication
The Company has effective communication channels to ensure that information is identified, captured and communicated in such form down, across and up within the Company.
Monitoring
The Company has established mechanisms for the ongoing monitoring of ordinary business activities. These include supervisory activities and other actions personnel take in performing their duties that assess the performance of internal control systems.
Risk Management
Risk taking is an integral part of its business. The Company has put in place risk management mechanisms to identify risks and to assess their potential impact on the achievement of the company’s objectives.
The risk management practices reflect the Company’s objectives. It is therefore not intended that risk positions are maintained solely to increase short-term profitability. The objective is to achieve a leading position in the shipping market and to provide a sound base for providing customers and counterparties with a first class service.