- Title
- Critical assessment of the quality of sustainability disclosures published by public entities in South Africa
- Creator
- Nazer, Faith Catherine
- Subject
- Sustainable development reporting
- Subject
- Auditing -- South Africa
- Subject
- Finance, Public -- South Africa
- Date Issued
- 2018
- Date
- 2018
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MCom
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/32845
- Identifier
- vital:32372
- Description
- This study was performed in light of the limited research available regarding the quality of sustainability reporting in the public sector, and particularly in South Africa; and due to the important role which the public sector should play in enhancing sustainable behaviour and consequently sustainability reporting. There have been definite developments in legislation and guidelines which aim to enhance the quality of published sustainability disclosures. Therefore, in light of these developments, the objective of this study was to evaluate whether there has been an improvement in the quality of sustainability disclosures published by selected South African public entities for the 2014 financial year compared to the 2008 financial year. This study used both qualitative and quantitative methods to collect and analyse data. The content analysis method was used in this study, with the coding frame being developed deductively through the use of existing sustainability reporting guidelines. The guidelines analysed and incorporated into the coding frame for this study were the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Generation 4 (G4) guideline and the integrated reporting framework. To ensure that the coding frame contained codes relevant to the South African context, the King III Report on Corporate Governance (King III) and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange Social Reporting Initiative (JSE SRI) were consulted, and reporting requirements incorporated into the coding frame. Ten Schedule 2 reports and twenty Schedule 3 reports were analysed using the coding frame developed. Descriptive statistics were used to summarise the resulting data. The Spearman Rank Order Correlation and the Mann-Whitney U Test were used to test for possible statistical significance of the changes in the data observed. This study found a number of significant improvements in the quality of reporting of sustainability disclosures from 2008 to 2014. Significant improvements were noted in the areas of reporting relating to balanced economic and environmental disclosures as well as comparative social disclosures being made. There were also significantly more annual published reports labelled as integrated reports in 2014 as compared to 2008, and significantly more 2014 reports used the GRI guidelines, integrated reporting framework, King III or a combination of these in the preparation of the annual published report. Significantly more tables, graphs and diagrams were used in the disclosure of social and other related matters in 2014, which enhanced the clarity of the information reported. There were also significant improvements noted in the disclosures relating to strategic focus and future orientation of the 2014 annual published reports and in the number of non-economic performance targets included in the public entities’ performance reports. Significant improvement was also noted in the quality of overall social disclosures and specifically in the quality of social disclosures relating to labour practices and decent working conditions, and disclosures relating to the entity’s impacts on society. The word count used to disclose matters relating to stakeholder engagement and board practices, composition and remuneration saw significant increases from 2008 to 2014. Despite these improvements and consistent with prior literature, it is concluded that more needs to be done in respect of reporting on social and environmental impacts, through the use of sustainability reporting guidelines and effective stakeholder engagement. In addition, it is recommended that annual published reports aim to provide a more balanced picture of the reporting entity and that negative performance be discussed in more detail. More effort needs to be made in enhancing the reliability of the annual published reports as a whole, through obtaining external assurance on the social and environmental disclosures. Finally, politicians and decision-makers in the public sector need to address the key root causes which lead to poor quality reporting. The significant impact of the following factors on the quality of sustainability disclosures was noted: the public entity’s total asset value, its total revenue, its level of social and environmental impact, the form of the report used as well as the guidelines used to prepare the reports.
- Format
- xv, 392 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Business and Economics Sciences
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | FAITH CATHERINE NAZER.pdf | 4 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |