• PLC wins Silver, Sampath the Bronze

John Keells Holdings Plc clinched the Cyril Gardiner Memorial Trophy Gold Award for Overall Excellence in Annual Financial Reporting at the golden jubilee of the Annual Report Awards held Tuesday at Nelum Pokuna Mahinda Rajapaksa Theatre. The Silver and Bronze awards were won by People’s Leasing Finance Plc and Sampath Bank Plc respectively. Organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, the iconic award ceremony each year witnesses a gathering of top corporates and high-level Government officials.(SH) Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa presents the Cyril Gardiner Memorial Trophy to John Keells Holdings CFO Ronnie Peiris as CA Sri Lanka President Arjuna Herath and Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal look on – Pic by Upul Abayasekara     This year a total of 130 organisations had submitted their annual reports competing for the coveted awards. Celebrating 50 successful years in financial reporting, the ceremony was attended by 1,000 guests and was held under the patronage of Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa. Guest of Honour Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal who was also the Chair of the Final Panel of Judges noted that; “Today we have 17 universities and more than 9000 schools and more than 1000 schools that teach English and IT at the highest levels, and we have a steady stream of students who gain admission to universities, tertiary education providers and for vocational training. Our country has undergone a tremendous change and over the last nine years we have seen that change accelerated. We have moved in to a new era with it our reporting standards and the quality of our profession – the accountants in our country need to keep abreast of the new developments that are going to take place.” John Keells Holdings PLC CFO Ronnie Peiris accepting the Cyril Gardiner Memorial noted: “This award has special meaning to us because it is the golden jubilee of the Annual Reports Awards. We are humbled to receive this award and thank our stakeholders, the institute and the business community for recognising us. I would like to acknowledge the true architects of our annual report and that is our young and not-so-young, the old and the not-so-old girls and boys of John Keells Holdings Plc. They are a tremendous lot and I am extremely impressed and honoured to lead them and I would not be able to find a better team in Sri Lanka. I would also acknowledge our lead auditors and extended lead auditors Ernst & Young, and the support of print partners Triad.” President of CA Sri Lanka Arjuna Herath said that the half a century long competition which has been acknowledged as one of Sri Lanka’s most celebrated corporate award events has set an exceptional benchmark in promoting transparency and accountability among organisations in the country, thereby helping strengthen the nation’s financial landscape. “There is no doubt that the competition has increased in stature and significance over the years and the growing number of participants each year for this prestigious competition is testament to the competition’s significance. This year, in comparison to previous years, the competition received its highest number of applications, which means more and more organisations understands the importance of elements of transparency and accountability,” he said. Herath also noted that he was certain that the golden jubilee anniversary will pave way for the beginning of a new journey towards renewed corporate reporting excellence which will provide an impetus to growth and development of Sri Lanka’s economy. Chairman of the Annual Report Awards Committee, Tishan Subasinghe underlining the judging process, noted that selecting the winners were no easy task and evaluations were conducted at three separate stages, where the reports were initially evaluated by a technical marking, followed by the shortlisted reports being subjected to an industry expert panel review and subsequently in the final stage the reports were evaluated by a final panel of judges chaired by Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal. “The Annual Report Awards Competition has been instrumental in shaping the quality of annual reporting of corporates to the highest standards, taking financial reporting to a whole new level in Sri Lanka,” he added. Introducing a novel category of awards, CA Sri Lanka had launched the ‘Distinguished Directors Program’ for directors of public listed companies (PLC) to foster a strong culture of corporate governance and sustainable corporate performances in Sri Lanka. Ten awards were given away to the recognised Chairmen of those companies. The Integrated Reporting Gold Award was bagged by Diesel & Motor Engineering PLC, while the silver and bronze awards went to Citizens Development Business Finance PLC and Mercantile Investment & Finance PLC respectively. John Keells Holdings PLC won the Management Commentary Gold Award, while the silver award was won by Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC and the bronze by Union Assurance PLC. The Corporate Governance Disclosure Gold Award was shared by Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC and Hatton National Bank PLC, while HNB Assurance PLC and Union Assurance PLC won the silver and bronze awards respectively. People’s Leasing & Finance PLC won the Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting Gold Award, while John Keells Holdings PLC bagged the silver award. The bronze award in the category was jointly won by Diesel & Motor Engineering PLC and Hatton National Bank PLC.