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| Wednesday, 24 March 2004 |
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6% increase in companies forwarding Annual Reports Though there are 320 listed companies on the Stock Exchange only 71 submit annual reports for the annual reports competition organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (ICASL) the country's national accountancy body. ICASL President Indrajith Fernando said that this year there is a six percent increase in companies, which have forwarded annual reports, and this was encouraging. "More state owned companies too are participating," he said. He said that Sri Lanka accounting systems are of very high quality and they have been praised by World Bank (WB) officials. The WB has said countries such as India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka should take Sri Lank annual reports as models. Sri Lanka is among the ten countries to have introduced a special accounting system for the Small and Medium sector. Chairman of the Annual Report Awards Committee Yohan Perera said that increasingly companies are responding to growing expectations from the various stakeholder groups for greater transparency of reporting in a number of areas that go beyond financial numbers. "An annual report is the most important corporate communication by any company of any size whether listed on the stock exchange or not, and these two initiatives the Social Responsibility Reporting award and the Financial Reporting Faculty are in response to develop and publish annual reports with greater precision and accountability," he said. He said that the IASL would for the first time independently recognise Social Responsibility Reporting at its 2004 awards for best annual reports, to be presented in Colombo on Friday, March 26 and is in the process of establishing a Financial Reporting Faculty to widen access to information and expertise on accounting standards and financial reporting. In the first of these two initiatives, annual reports for 2002-03 now under final scrutiny by the Institute's 18-member Panel of Judges are being evaluated for Social Responsibility Reporting or Triple Bottom Line (Profitability; Corporate Social Responsibility; Environment) reporting. The second major new initiative of the ICASL is the establishment of an independent Financial Reporting Faculty under the patronage and guidance of the Institute. The faculty's first Chairman Reyaz Mihular said one of the key objectives of the faculty would be to provide the services, guidelines and training needed to enhance the quality of financial reporting in Sri Lanka's corporate sector. The Annual Report competition organised by the ICASL showcases the best annual reports of the year in 17 categories. Conducted annually since 1964, the ICASL's Annual Report competition is a landmark event on the calendar of Sri Lanka's corporate sector. (SS) |
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