Abstract
Recent social, political and economic changes have led to an evolution of the concept of public sector accountability. Greater awareness among citizens and the demand for greater transparency among public officers have led to new forms of reporting. Practices in use among private companies have been adapted to public organizations, leading to the spread of social, environmental, sustainability, intellectual capital reports, and more recently integrated reports. In this context, whereas the Consultation Draft of the International Integrated Reporting Framework (2013) was designed to provide guidelines on integrated reporting mainly to for-profit enterprises, it is also extendable to the public sector. This chapter examines the case of the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA), a public institution which published its first integrated report in 2012. The aim is to explore the integrated report of AGSA in light of the guiding principles and content elements provided by the Consultation Draft.
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- 1.
- 2.
The CD was published in April 2013, while the AGSA IR was presented to the South African Parliament on 30 September 2012.
- 3.
The incumbent AG, Mr. Terence Nombembe, was appointed with effect from 1 December 2006. He served as Deputy Auditor-General for 5 years prior to his appointment, and his contract runs until 1 December 2013.
- 4.
Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) is a form of economic empowerment initiated by the South African government, with the aim of distributing wealth across a broad a spectrum of South African society.
- 5.
The “apply or explain” approach is characterized by a focus on the ratio of principles and the way in which principles and recommendations can be applied, rather than compliance with precise dictates drawn up on the basis of the principles. This means that, in following this approach, the Board of Directors might opt in its decision making—in particular cases and in order to protect the interests of the institution—not to comply with a recommendation, or to apply it in a different way, while still maintaining the underlying principle behind the same recommendation
- 6.
As is widely known, Professor Mervyn King, as well as being the Chair of the Committee that promoted the famous South African Corporate Governance Code, is also the Chairman of the IIRC and the Chairman Emeritus of the GRI.
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Bartocci, L., Picciaia, F. (2013). The Case of the Auditor-General of South Africa. In: Busco, C., Frigo, M., Riccaboni, A., Quattrone, P. (eds) Integrated Reporting. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02168-3_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02168-3_20
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