ICASL Annual Report Awards grand finale on Tuesday night

The grand finale of the highly-anticipated Annual Report Awards Competition organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (ICASL) will be held on 7 December 2010, at the Oak Room, Cinnamon Grand.

Senior Minister of International Monetary Cooperation Dr. Sarath Amunugama will grace the 46th ICASL Annual Report Awards ceremony as the Chief Guest while the Guest of Honour at the event will be the Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Ashok K. Kantha.

At Tuesday’s finale, winners will be chosen from a total of 22 special categories, and under each category, a winner and a runner-up will be awarded respectively.

Rienzie T. Wijetilleke, Chairman of Hatton National Bank PLC – which was the Winner of the Year – Overall Excellence in Annual Financial Reporting 2009 – had this to say: “We consider the annual report we publish every year as our business card for existing and potential investors, and our face to all stakeholders. This annual publication is the most important vehicle available to us for corporation communication. Over the years, we have watched with great interest the gradual evolution of this competition in terms of standards to be observed and the profound changes that have taken place in the corporate sector and reported annually. These changes have certainly had a positive effect on the performance and reporting systems of all companies.”

“Given the competitiveness that now prevails throughout the entities and the changing skills that are needed to ensure that we stand out in this tough and unforgiving corporate environment, the selection of our report as the best in overall competition is a tremendous encouragement to our board, management, staff and in particular to the numerous cross functional committees who worked tirelessly on this exercise for several months. It’s a true reflection of the efficiency and commitment of the HNB Team. I congratulate the institute and its competent team for their ongoing efforts in stimulating all listed companies to strive hard with transparency for continuous improvement and achieving excellence in financial reporting.”

Held since 1964, the Annual Report Awards has been a platform to encourage excellence in the presentations of information among diverse Sri Lankan business entities in the field of financial reporting. The ICASL is the country’s national professional accounting body, which is a globally recognised accountancy organisation with over 4200 professional members and 34,000 registered students.