Corporate Social Responsibility (IVOR nr. 77) 2010/4.5.1:4.5.1 Overview analysis

Corporate Social Responsibility (IVOR nr. 77) 2010/4.5.1

4.5.1 Overview analysis

Deze functie is alleen te gebruiken als je bent ingelogd.Deze functie is alleen te gebruiken als je bent ingelogd.Deze functie is alleen te gebruiken als je bent ingelogd.

As large companies are now required to include non-financial key performance indicators in their annual reports, it is interesting to see how they comply with this new obligation. The annual reports 2006, published in the course of 2007, of twenty-five Euronext listed Dutch companies were examined. Different aspects were considered in the course hereof:

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does the annual report address environmental and employee matters?

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what type of CSR matters are mentioned?

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does the company address the issue of supply chain responsibility?

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the number of pages spent on non-financial performance;

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the consistency with the annual accounts and explanation thereto;

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does the company also publish a complementary CSR report?

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does the CSR report follow the 2006 GRI Guidelines? and

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does the annual report refer to the CSR report?

Annex 4.2 in fine shows a quick scan of the results. It was observed that the majority of the reports subdivided the non-financial indicators in environmental, social (community) and employee matters. The social aspect usually consisted of sponsoring activities but also of recruiting local personnel to create employment. It is difficult to measure information on CSR matters. That is why the number of pages was included; it gives an idea about the depth of information. Some annual reports contain little information on CSR matters and mainly refer to their complementary CSR report, the contents of which were not investigated. However, it was checked whether such a CSR report concerned a so-called ' GRI-report' (see section 4.5.6 infra) and if so, whether the 2002 or the 2006 GRI Guidelines were followed.

Whether a reference to another report suffices in fulfilling the legal obligation to report on non-financial matters is questionable, since the Modernisation Directive explicitly dictates that the information should be included in the annual report.1

Obviously it was not possible to check whether the CSR achievements which the companies claim, are in actual fact true. Neither could it be ascertained whether the non-financial information is consistent with the other information in the financial accounts and the explanation thereto. However, when attempting to evaluate consistency, figures clearly connecting to CSR performance were not noticed. In the Netherlands, accountants check whether the report and the financial accounts are consistent and whether the report complies with the law. They do not have to verify the contents of the annual report. However, accountancy firms have developed external assurance standards to verify CSR information. They apply these when so instructed by the company. It is expected that any non-financial information will be increasingly submitted for external assurance.

Deze functie is alleen te gebruiken als je bent ingelogd.