Accrued Expenses

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

NOTE J – ACCRUED EXPENSES

Accrued expenses consist of the following:


	2016		2015
Compensation and bonuses	$	1,687,214	$	866,551
Vessel operations		—		1,528,478
Professional services		544,412		942,604
Interest		2,391,857		828,888
Accrued insurance payable		393,715		—
Other operating		60,927		98,935

Total accrued expenses	$	5,078,125	$	4,265,456

Vessel operations related to expenditures required to operate our ships such as fuel, repair and maintenance, port fees and charter related. Professional fees are mainly attributable to legal fees and related and other professional services in support of operations. Included in Professional fees are $401,000 of fees earned by Greg Stemm, former chief executive office and current chairman of the board, in accordance to his consulting service agreement executed in 2015. These fees are to be paid out monthly over 2017, 2018 and 2019. Mr. Stemm has an additional $80,509 of fees due in accounts payable at December 31, 2016. These fees will be remitted at a mutually agreeable time in the future. Compensation and bonus includes $0.6 million accrued incentive awards for the company employees for 2015 and prior and $1.1 million for 2016. However, the Board of Directors will only approve incentives to be paid when and if there is sufficient excess cash above and beyond normal operating means. Other operating expenses contain general items due resulting from general operations. Accrued interest is due to MINOSA, Epsilon and Monaco per debt agreements described in NOTE I.