A total of 13 awards will be presented tonight,
which are divided into 5 categories, namely:
Overall Excellence Award
Industry Excellence Awards
Presentation Awards, comprising an Award each for Best Annual Report in Bahasa Malaysia and Best Designed
Annual Report
Special
Award for Non-Listed Organisations, and
Environmental
Reporting Award.
We
would also be presenting a Certificate of Merit
to all finalists in recognition of the high quality of their annual reports.
A
special recognition goes to the panel of adjudicators consisting of 64 members drawn from
commerce and industry, public accounting firms, academic institutions and the Stock
Exchange. The panel of adjudicators has had a
very challenging task in selecting the winners, as all the short-listed entries were of a
very high quality. As Chairman of the
Adjudication Committee, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to all the adjudicators for
their hard work and sacrifices. Without their
valuable contribution, we will not be able to announce the winners of NACRA tonight.
The
NACRA adjudication process consists of two levels of assessment, i.e. the preliminary screening and the detailed adjudication. All annual reports are required to meet the
following criteria before they qualify for detailed adjudication:
Promptness of publication
Unmodified auditor's report i.e. a clean auditor's report
Compliance with applicable approved accounting standards
Availability of annual report in Bahasa Malaysia
No public sanction by the KLSE or the Securities Commission on the
company's affairs
The companies are not under Section 176 scheme or KLSE PN 4
Availability of at least 3 years' financial highlights and
historical summary
Information
on shareholders statistics
Name of
company secretary, registered address and registrar's address
Particulars
of company's properties
Report of Audit Committee
Statement of Internal Control
Statement of Corporate Governance
All
companies listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange automatically qualified for the NACRA
competition and underwent a preliminary screening process.
As of December 31, 2002, a total of 883 companies' were listed on the
KLSE, of which 592 companies or 67% were listed on the Main Board and 291 companies or 33%
on the Second Board.
Out
of this, only 93 companies or 10.5% passed the preliminary screening and qualified for
detailed adjudication. These consisted of 86
companies or 15% of the companies from the Main Board and 7 companies or 2% from the
Second Board.
The
detailed adjudication itself was carried out in two stages. At the first stage, the annual reports were
assessed within industry groups. The annual
report which achieves the highest level of overall excellence within an industry group is
adjudged the winner of the Industry Excellence Award.
Those reports which were nominated by the industry group adjudicators for
the Overall Excellence Award and Presentation Awards were subject to a second round of
detailed adjudication. This was carried out
by an independent panel of adjudicators appointed by the Adjudication Committee.
I
must say that the standard and quality of the annual reports of Malaysian companies have
improved significantly over the years. We can
see that lot of thought and effort has been put into the production of the annual reports,
both in terms of content and design and not forgetting the financial costs involved. With the objective of raising the level of
corporate governance, the board of directors are now required to include two additional
statements in the annual report, namely a statement on compliance with the Best Practices
in Corporate Governance and a statement on the company's internal control system. There has also been greater willingness of
companies to disclose information about their activities, their corporate policies,
strategic plans and prospects, the initiatives they have undertaken to protect the
environment, and their social obligations towards society at large.
Whilst
a clear and comprehensive text is important, effective use of graphics, charts,
illustrations and photographs enhances the communicative effect of the annual report. The best designed annual report was chosen on the
merit of its originality, thematic application, creative use of images and the conceptual
design effort in articulating key strategic
messages of the company.
Although
the majority of the NACRA participants are public-listed companies, the Organising
Committee has always encouraged the participation of non-listed companies and other
organisations. These include charitable
bodies, non-profit organisations and public sector business enterprises. However, the number of participants in this
category is still not encouraging and I would like to take this opportunity to invite more
non-listed companies as well as public sector business enterprises to take part in future
NACRA competitions. I must add that for those
non-listed companies which participated in NACRA 2003, the quality of their annual reports
is of commendable high standards.
We
have now come to the much awaited part of tonight's programme, that is the AWARD
PRESENTATION. It is my great pleasure to
invite Yang Berhormat Tan Sri Dato' Haji Muhyiddin bin Haji Mohd Yassin, Minister of
Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, to the stage, accompanied by Mr Lam Kee Soon,
Chairman of the NACRA Organising Committee, to present the 2003 National Annual Corporate
Report Awards.
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