Trends in integrated reporting: a state owned company analysis
Date
2016
Authors
Surty, Mahmood Ismail
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Abstract
Accountability by state owned companies has been lacking in recent times. The
need for an oversight mechanism to improve governance and as such accountability
is required for state owned companies (IOD and PWC, 2011). Integrated reporting
has answered this call due to its ability to provide a holistic view of the factors that
create value for an entity in the short, medium and long-term. South African state
owned companies have realised the benefit integrated reporting can have on their
corporate governance and as such have adopted integrated reporting in terms of
King III and the IR Framework. The purpose of this study is to investigate the trends
in integrated reporting by state owned companies per The Public Finance
Management Act 1999 for the 2013, 2014 and 2015 financial periods. This report
examines the extent of disclosure made by state owned companies per the King III
and IR Framework recommendations and requirements in respect of integrated
reporting; by means of using a scorecard approach to identify the level of disclosure
made by each state owned company. The key findings of this study was that the
level of reporting disclosure by state owned companies increased following an
upward positive trend with the disclosures on average increasing from providing little
information on a poor to average basis in 2013 to providing some information at a
satisfactory level in 2015. It was found that there were no instances of noncompliance
with overall disclosure by any of the state owned companies analysed
over the three year period. Furthermore, not a single company provided disclosure
overall at an excellent level in any of the three years analysed. This finding suggests
that although improving, the level of integrated reporting disclosure by state owned
companies is still only satisfactory and as such there is a lot of room for improvement
over time. Areas that are in need of reform relate to governance, the governance of
information technology, the provision of information on the outlook of the entity and
information as to the basis upon which integrated reports are prepared.
Description
A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Commerce (Accountancy).
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Citation
Surty, Ismail Mahmood (2016) Trends in integrated reporting: a state owned company analysis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, <http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/22142>