The Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda (ICPAU) is set to hold the 10th Edition of the Financial Reporting (FiRe) Awards on 4 November 2020.
The FiRe Awards were introduced in 2011 to enhance the quality of financial and business reporting in Uganda by encouraging the implementation of international financial reporting standards as well as best practices in financial reporting. Good financial reporting provides evidence of the health of an organization.
It is a test of the pulse of an organization’s wellness, assuring the shareholders and other stakeholders of the entity’s strong capital base.
It is also an excellent way to build investor confidence and increase access to long term financing, by providing appropriate disclosures and evidence of good corporate governance.
The 2020 theme is 10 years of enhanced financial reporting: gliding with excellence into the future.
CPA Mark Omona, the Director - Standards and Regulation at ICPAU noted that since the inception of the Awards, the quality of financial reporting exhibited by participating organizations has improved tremendously.
“There are more disclosures pertaining to strategic information, governance information, sustainability reporting, risk management and elaborate explanation of the figures, owing to implementation of evaluators’ feedback,” he said.
Emphasis is being placed on Integrated Reporting, a global reporting framework which advances the presentation of the story of the organisation beyond the numbers, through demonstrating how the people, systems, capital speak together in order to create value for shareholders.
Organisations must put their holistic story in one report in a manner that can communicate to all stakeholders, including non-accountants: investors, customers, suppliers, among others.
CPA Omona, however, noted a major impediment to good financial reporting, as the reluctance by some organisations to apply the appropriate standard. He urged Small and Medium Enterprises to apply the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) for SMEs, as it is less complex and requires fewer disclosures, compared to the full IFRS.
Organized by ICPAU, in partnership with the Capital Markets Authority, the Uganda Securities Exchange and Vision Group as the media partner, the 2020 FiRe Awards will be held virtually in light of the COVID-19 social distancing requirements.
Participation in the FiRe Awards is by submission of the 2019 audited annual report, and open to public and private sector organisations as well as Not-for-profit organisations.
