JKH emerges ACCA Sustainability Reporting Awards winner in Large Scale category

Sampath Bank and Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings joint winners in medium category, HDFC bags small scale despite being new entrant 

By Cheranka Mendis

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) yesterday felicitated what was deemed as Sri Lanka’s most transparent and accountable business entities at the Sustainability Reporting Awards held at the Cinnamon Grand.

John Keells Holdings (JKH) Group President Suresh Rajendra collects the award for the Large Scale ACCA Sustainability Reporting Awards winner presented by 2007 Nobel Laureate Prof. Mohan Munasinghe while President ACCA Sri Lanka Nisreen Rehmanjee (L) and President of ACCA Mark Gold (R) look on - Pic by Upul Abayasekaera

The award ceremony in its seventh year applauded the efforts of eight companies of Sri Lanka. Awarded on three levels – small scale, middle scale and large scale – the award winners have been selected after an in-depth analysis of their annual reports under the categories of completeness, credibility and communication.   

 Premier blue chip company John Keells Holdings (JKH) received the title of winner in the Large Scale category while Samapth Bank and Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings was joint winner in the medium scale category and public company and first time entrant Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) Bank won the small scale winner award. Winning the runner up awards were Hatton National Bank (HNB) for large scale, Diesel and Motor Engineering (DIMO) for medium scale and Hatton National Bank (HNB) in the small scale category.

 The event, which saw the presence of 2007 Nobel laureate Prof. Mohan Munasinghe as Chief Guest and President of ACCA Mark Gold as Guest of Honour contained the gathering of what Munasinghe recognised as the “cream of sustainable accounting community in the country.” Munasinghe in his speech asserted that sustainable development is a major objective in the 21st Century and that the economic, social and environmental impact needs to be examined along with greater accountability to build long term success of entities. In a framework where the world is facing multiple global crises from global financial crisis to poverty bubble and environment bubble, the ‘Millennium Consumption Goal’ must be taken into account.

“Global leaders contributed USD 5 trillion for the global crisis bailout, but only USD 100 billion for the two billion poverty stricken people in the world. And only a few billions were put aside for climate change. There has been very little action by the world leaders. Setting up goals for sustainability tells us there is something we can do. We need to make development more sustainable through action. Often politicians are too busy looking after their interests,” Munasinghe said.

 In a seemingly challenging world, accountants will play a pivotal role to fight against climate change in order to ensure a sustainable future for the global economy. “Without effective measurement and accounting of resources, there will be no way of shepherding the earth’s resources in a meaningful way. Effective sustainability reporting provides accountability, transparency, and comparability of benefits to business, investors and wider society,” President of ACCA Mark Gold said.

Gold went on to say that sustainability reporting provides the most complete and useful look at business’ operation, accounts and strategy. Proper reporting would benefit the company in the long term view of sustainability and growth and positively impact on the business’ bottom line, he said.