THE chartered accounting firm, Ram & McRae will, on July 31, hand over the inaugural award, following the review, by an independent and voluntary committee, of the 2009 annual reports of 18 entities. A partner, Mr. Rakesh Latchana, told a media briefing yesterday that the reward is intended to encourage better reporting in the business community.
“The aim is to give companies an incentive to push for better,” he said.
The scheme was started last October and the participants include Banks DIH Limited, Republic Bank Limited, Demerara Tobacco Company Limited, Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) and New Building Society (NBS).
Latchana said, from the 18 competitors, four will be chosen for further scrutiny, after which one will be selected as the winner and announced during Ram and McRae’s 25th anniversary celebrations at Marian Academy.
He explained the yearly compilations were sought from publicly owned companies, commercial banks, insurance companies and Government agencies, among others.
However, Latchana said some of them had not published their 2009 compendiums and, therefore, could not be considered.
He said his firm has, for years, been involved in reviewing different reports that are of general public interest prior to this new initiative.
“Corporate governance has been the foundation in all that we have done. The aim of this award was to push corporate governance further and encourage companies to do more in their annual reports, to recognise their stakeholders more, to provide more information and in a much timelier manner,” Latchana said.
He reiterated that the committee adjudicating is completely independent of Ram & Mc Rae, which has been involved with the audits of three of the contestants, Private Sector Commission of Guyana Limited, Republic Bank (Guyana) Limited and a subsidiary of Demerara Mutual Life Assurance Society Limited.
The Committee, comprising  Mr. Quincy Bourne (Chairman), Mr. Paul Chan-a-Sue, Mr. Patrick Dial, Mr. Roubinder Rambarran and Mr. Nigel Niles, is also responsible for developing the criteria for the judging, with some support from Ram & McRae.
Among those criteria are accessibility and timeliness of reporting; adequacy of discussion and analysis; compliance with accounting standards; compliance with regulatory requirements; corporate governance disclosures; physical appearance; social responsibility and sustainability comments.
Niles remarked that their task is burdensome, with much information to sift through but he maintained that the Committee has enough time to scrutinise the information and make a decision.
Mr. Christopher Ram, who was present at the briefing, said the undertaking is important because the quality of information plays a critical role in the financial market.
The project is a first for Guyana and may be for the Caribbean, as well.