The usefulness of South African annual reports as at December 2010

Abstract

This article provides an account of the extent to which South African annual reports, as at the end of 2010, comply with the fundamental and enhancing qualitative characteristics of decision-useful information. Using the frameworks provided by the International Accounting Standards Board and Integrated Reporting Committee of South Africa, the research provides a normative assessment of the quality of South African annual reports at the transition to integrated reporting, which can be used by future researchers wishing to study the effect of an integrated reporting model on corporate reporting. Based on the views of a selection of corporate reporting experts, the article finds that certain aspects of South African companies’ corporate reports are regarded as providing useful information to users. There are also areas in need of improvement, most notably the disclosure of non-financial information and the integration of this information with the financial performance and strategic vision of the organisation.