Looking at an operating loss of $1.2 million as of Nov. 30, 2011, Port Authority board members said Wednesday that they would be aggressive on billing and collecting outstanding debts that could bring up their bottom line.
According to the authority’s financials for November, operating revenues for VIPA totaled $6.9 million, while expenses totaled $8.2 million. While the revenue figure is about the same as what the authority realized in November 2010, expenses for the same period went up 11 percent, from $7.3 million. The current operating loss also increased by 10 percent during this time, from $386,137.
Breaking it down between the aviation and marine divisions, agency officials said aviation revenues decreased 3 percent when compared to the same period last fiscal year, from $2.7 million to $2.6 million. Direct expenditures are $3.7 million, which is also a 10 percent increase from the November 2010 figure of $3.3 million, officials said.
Marine revenues did increase 1 percent to $4.2 million, while expenditures totaled $3.5 million as of Nov. 30, 2011. Officials said VIPA has $3.4 million in net accounts receivable, which includes $5.7 million in customer accounts, $3.4 million from U.S. Customs $331,577 from the federal government and $130,143 in the “other accounts receivable” category.
Board member Gordon Finch said that the authority has been incurring additional losses because of a computer glitch that has prevented them from charging their tenants late fees on payments.
“We are going to keep this on the Finance Committee’s agenda until a resolution is made,” said Finch, who is also the board’s Finance Committee chairman.
“We can’t continue to act like a late fee is not a legitimate fee,” he said, adding that starting next month, “we will embark on the process of determining how to re-instate the late fees and figure out the best way to collect them.”
The computer glitch happened while VIPA transitioned from its old financial accounting system to a new one, officials later explained.
VIPA Executive Director Kenn Hobson said the glitch has been fixed and that the agency will be reassessing what the tenants owe and sending out new bills. Tenants that refuse to pay will be taken to court, he said.
Officials said some of the delinquent accounts include tenants at the Crown Bay Plaza, which amount to 15 accounts in total.
