Financial reporting awards slated for November

Mr Charles Nsamba (L) Public Relations Manager CMA and Mr Omona Mark Director Standards and Regulations at ICPAU taking questions from journalists during the press conference at ICPAU office in Bukoto. Courtesy Photo

The Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda (ICPAU) has set November 7 as the date for ninth edition of Financial Reporting Awards and has asked government institution to participate by submitting the financial reports.
Financial Reporting involves the disclosure of financial information to the various stakeholders about the financial performance and financial position of the organization over a specified period of time. These stakeholders include – investors, creditors, public, debt providers, governments and government agencies.

The ICPAU says government, private and Non-Governmental Organisations including churches qualifies to participate in the financial report awards because the competition enables them to achieve good financial reporting records.

Addressing journalists at the institute’s head quarter in Bukoto ahead of the Financial Reporting Awards scheduled for November 7 2019, the director standards and regulations at the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda, Mark Omona said the public sector institutions (Government institutions) are now required to enter the competition by submitting their financial reports because it is a directive from the Accountant General of the Republic of Uganda.

“The Financial Reporting Awards is important for all sorts of organisations because it helps them improve on their financial reporting, because of the significance of these awards, the Accountant General of the Republic Uganda has encouraged the public sector institution to submit their financial reports to the institute for scrutiny, which will not only enable them win the awards but it will also translate into good financial reporting in the government institutions,” he said.

Mr Omona said the awarding ceremony since its inception in 2011 has helped companies to improve on their financial reporting.

“These awards have created transparency in the institutions that have been participating because they are following the advice they get from the institute to make adjustments on what is they are supposed to do,” he said.

Mr Omona said over the last eight years, the Financial Reporting Award has been running over 300 companies mainly from the private sector and NGOs have been actively participating in the competition they had their financial reports improve of the years.

Mr Omona said last year’s award which attracted 80 companies but most of them were private sector companies and the NGOs.

"We had only six public sector institutions last year, however, this time around we expect the number public sector institutions to rise since the Accountant General of the Republic of Uganda want the public sector institutions to participate as a way of promoting transparency in management in government institutions,” he said.

The public relation manager Capital Markets Authority (CMA), Mr Charles Nsamba said the financial report is being supported by CMA because Financial Reporting is very important and critical task of an organization and it is a vital part of promoting good Corporate Governance in both private and public institutions.

“Financial reporting is important for us at the Capital Markets Authority and Uganda Securities Exchange because it enables the large institutions (companies) and the Small and Medium Enterprises have proper books of accounts and it prepares them to access patient capital by listing their shares or corporate bonds in the stock exchange,” he said.

The chairman Financial Reporting Award Committee, who is also partner audit at KPMG, Mr Stephen Ineget said: “The Financial reporting Award is meant to promote good financial reporting in the country and companies have got up to September 30 to submit their financial reports to ICPAU.”