The New Zealand stock exchange (NZX) has a quick question it would like NZ Farming Systems Uruguay, which is publicly traded on the NZX, to answer: Why, exactly, do the words "fudge this" appear in the company's annual financial statement sent to the stock exchange yesterday?

The New Zealand Herald reports that the NZX was not amused by a line in the financial statement that read: "Depreciation - fudge this to equal depn in FA note 11$ 2391 ...." NZX head of market supervision, Caroline Young, said in a letter to the company that the comment "has caused NZX, and the market, concern that the Financial Statements may not be accurate." She added, "what exactly is meant by the comment and why is it included?"

In response, the company stated that the "fudge this" notation was "a personal file note included in an earlier working draft of the notes to the Financial Statements." It said that

While the words in the comment were not well chosen, they were merely a prompt for the author of the Financial Statements to reconfirm the rounding difference expressed in an early draft of the Financial Statements where there was a minor rounding discrepancy.

The company also stated that the depreciation figure included in the statements was "true and accurate in all material respects."

(via @derekabdinor)