A total of 24 Sri Lankan companies were honoured for their excellent annual reporting and for also promoting transparency, accountability, and governance in financial reporting at the 25th Best Presented Annual Report Awards of the South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA).
The prestigious South Asian awards ceremony was hosted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) and held in Colombo under the patronage of Mr. Hennayake Bandara, President of SAFA, Mr. Sanjaya Bandara, President of CA Sri Lanka, Mr. Heshana Kuruppu, Chairman of the SAFA Committee for Improvement in Transparency, Accountability and Governance (ITAG) and Vice President of CA Sri Lanka, Prof. Lakshman R. Watawala, President of CMA Sri Lanka and Ms. Dulani Fernando, CEO of CA Sri Lanka.
Five Sri Lankan companies bagged five main awards at this year’s SAFA awards. Sri Lanka Telecom PLC won the communication & information technology sector main award, Singer Sri Lanka PLC was the winner under the services sector, Namunukula Plantations PLC was the agriculture sector winner and Access engineering PLC walked away as the winner under the infrastructure & construction sector. Under the integrated reporting category, the National Development Bank PLC was adjudged a joint winner.
The other Sri Lankan companies which won awards and certificates were Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC, Hatton National Bank PLC, Bank of Ceylon, People’s Bank, Union Assurance PLC, Softlogic Life Insurance PLC, HNB Assurance PLC, Singer Finance (Lanka) PLC, Alliance Finance Company PLC, People’s Leasing & Finance PLC, Dipped Products PLC, Hayleys Fabric PLC, Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Plantation Human Development Trust, Resus Energy PLC, John Keells Holdings PLC, RIL Property PLC and Diesel & Motor Engineering PLC.
The competition received a total of 104 applications for this year’s awards ceremony, from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Awards were given under 13 categories comprising of private and public sector banks, insurance sector, financial services sector, communication & information technology sector, services sector, non-governmental organisations sector, manufacturing sector, public sector, agriculture sector, diversified holdings sector, power & energy sector as well as the infrastructure & construction sector.
Apart from the 13 sectors, companies were also honoured under two special categories, which were the SAARC Anniversary Award for Corporate Governance Disclosures, and the Integrated Reporting Awards.
Addressing the event, Mr. Sanjaya Bandara, said as a founding member of SAFA, CA Sri Lanka has always been committed to improving transparency, accountability, and governance among corporates in Sri Lanka and across South Asia.
“While I extend my warm congratulations to this year’s winners, I would also like to take this opportunity to commend all the companies for participating in this important regional event, which is a hallmark of their commitment towards enhancing transparency, accountability and governance,” he said.
The awards under different sectors are conferred based on a stringent evaluation administered by the SAFA Committee for Improvement in Transparency, Accountability & Governance.
In his welcome speech, Mr. Heshana Kuruppu said that in continuing to ensure SAFA provides participating companies a contemporary competition in line with global changes and trends, the ITAG Committee is currently in the process of making further improvements to the evaluation criteria in relation to the common industry check list, as well as for the corporate governance and integrated reporting categories.
“Accordingly, a new set of guidelines will be shared among SAFA member bodies in due course, together with the dates when these new guidelines will come into effect,” he added.
The event was held as a hybrid event, with other SAFA member countries from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan joining the event virtually.
