The prestigious Annual Report Awards organized by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) received a tremendous boost recently with the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) coming onboard to power the event with a strategic partnership.
This is the first time CSE is coming onboard as a strategic partner for the awards competition which will celebrate its 50th anniversary milestone this year. The competition is an important platform which promotes and recognizes organization’s for transparency and good governance in financial reporting.
Welcoming CSE onboard, Mr. Arjuna Herath, President of CA Sri Lanka emphasized that securing the support of an organization in the likes of CSE was not only a tremendous boost to the event’s stature, but was also an endorsement to the awards competition, which has enjoyed a rich history spanning five decades in helping improve transparency and accountability among corporates that produce annual reports.
“A very important element in accounting, financial reporting, and corporate governance in a corporate body is the annual report. We have been very focused in recognizing the corporates producing best annual reports that adhere good principles and best practices which will allow to create a more responsible and accountable corporate world, while ensuring sustainable growth of not only the corporate entities but the country as a whole,” he said, adding that the awards competition has incorporated concepts of sustainable reporting and integrated reporting in to the guidelines of producing annual reports to ensure long term sustainability of corporates.
Mr. Herath emphasized that the annual report is undoubtedly a very important tool as it is the document that tells the story of what a company is doing. Therefore, the primary objective is to ensure that this document tells the correct story in a very concise manner and in a manner that it will be easily understood and provide an idea as to how the company will evolve and how effectively it is integrating with society and the environment.
“This has become so important as the world is changing so fast and the environment has become so complex that life span of companies have become short. Today the average life span of company is 40 years only and 1/3 of the companies that are set-up close down within 10 years of starting operations. Hence we want companies to approach business in sustainable manner integrating well in to the complex world and society, and we are using the annual report as a tool to get companies to approach business in this manner,” Mr. Herath added.
Mr. Vajira Kulatilaka, Chairman of the Colombo Stock Exchange while expressing his pleasure in partnering with the Annual Report Awards as its strategic partner, noted that corporate governance is an essential element for all companies, and is an indication to stakeholders that a company is willing and ready to comply with fair business practices.
“Further, corporate governance creates a positive impression of a company to stakeholders and thereby is a vital element in attracting potential investors and portraying a positive image to the public,” he said.
Mr. Kulatilaka noted that an Annual Report of a company that is clear, concise and accurate is an indication, especially to investors, that a company takes its role of accountability very seriously, and in such a context the company demonstrates to the public that it sees itself accountable not just to its board, employees and shareholders but also to the government, business community at large and society in general.
“As the CSE advocates an informed investor culture, an Annual Report becomes a key communication tool of the company to showcase its stakeholders its long term commitment to the values of good corporate governance, accountability and transparency, as well as being an indicator of the company’s historical stability and future prospects. The CSE sees this strategic partnership with CA Sri Lanka as a logical progression of promoting these ideals among the corporate sector,” Mr. Kulatilaka added.
