The grand finale of the Annual Report Awards 2011 organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) concluded on Friday night amidst the country’s corporate elite with one of Sri Lanka’s leading banks, Commercial Bank PLC emerging as this year’s winner by winning the Cyril Gardiner Memorial Trophy in the Overall Excellence in Financial Reporting category for 2011.
Held at the Waters Edge, Battaramulla, the event was graced by the presence of Hon. Basil Rajapaksa, Minister of Economic Development who was the Chief Guest while Dr. P. B. Jayasundera, Secretary to the Treasury was the Guest of Honour at the evening.
The silver award in the Overall Excellence in Financial Reporting category was won by Union Assurance PLC and the bronze by Hatton National Bank PLC.
The Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting Award was won by Diesel and Motor Engineering PLC while Union Assurance PLC won the Corporate Governance Disclosure Gold Award. National Savings Bank was adjudged the winner in the Management Commentary Award category.
A total of 60 awards were given out at Friday night’s ceremony spanning diverse sectors in the country including finance, banking, hotel, health, manufacturing, insurance and the non-government organisation sector.
A total of 47 certificates of compliance were also given out to companies which complied with the statutory requirements which are expected in an Annual Report.
Held since 1964, the competition is seen as a platform which encourages excellence in the presentations of information covering transparency, social accountability and good governance among diverse Sri Lankan business entities in the field of financial reporting.
The Annual Reports entered into this year’s competition went through an initial selection process by a panel of judges, after which the shortlisted reports was subjected to a more intensive technical review.
The Annual Reports were evaluated against established criteria that assess how successful each entrant was in communicating their objectives, highlights and performance, management to the intended audience. The actual financial position, financial and non-financial performances of entrants are beyond the evaluation criteria.
The overall winners were selected by a final panel of judges chaired by the Governor of Central Bank, Mr. Ajith Nivard Cabraal, who subjected the reports to an intensive screening process, and were selected purely on merit, irrespective of their business sector.
The entrants for the corporate governance, management commentary and corporate social responsibility awards were evaluated against a special marking scheme by a panel of specialists in the respective areas.
