Question

Three major differences between corporate and government disclosure requirements

Answer 1

Corporate disclosure can be defined as the communication of information by people inside the public firms towards people outside. The main aim of corporate disclosure is “to communicate firm performance and governance to outside investors” .This communication is not only called for by shareholders and investors to analyze the relevance of their investments, but also by the other stakeholders, particularly for information about corporate social and environmental policies.

Disclosure takes different forms. The first one is financial reporting, essentially financial statements whose contents are defined by accounting standards (for instance the International Financial Reporting Standards). As compliance with good practice in corporate governance is now required, reporting also concerns governance (for instance, the “comply or explain” principle has been enforced since 2008 in the European Union). Reporting must respect specific rules, even specific formats, restricting the discretion of managers, and allowing stakeholders a better understanding of information. Besides reporting, managers also communicate information in a less formal way, for instance by press conferences, by announcement on websites and so on.

Government disclosures are those requirements which are defined by government and each corporate has to follow checklist and disclose such requirements in such form as required.

Corporate disclosure can be defined as the communication of information by people inside the public firms towards people outside. The main aim of corporate disclosure is “to communicate firm performance and governance to outside investors” .This communication is not only called for by shareholders and investors to analyze the relevance of their investments, but also by the other stakeholders, particularly for information about corporate social and environmental policies.

Disclosure takes different forms. The first one is financial reporting, essentially financial statements whose contents are defined by accounting standards (for instance the International Financial Reporting Standards). As compliance with good practice in corporate governance is now required, reporting also concerns governance (for instance, the “comply or explain” principle has been enforced since 2008 in the European Union). Reporting must respect specific rules, even specific formats, restricting the discretion of managers, and allowing stakeholders a better understanding of information. Besides reporting, managers also communicate information in a less formal way, for instance by press conferences, by announcement on websites and so on.

Government disclosures are those requirements which are defined by government and each corporate has to follow checklist and disclose such requirements in such form as required.

The Government has set out the need for greater transparency across its operations to enable the public to hold government bodies and politicians to account. This includes commitments relating to public expenditure, intended to help reduce the deficit and achieve better value for money. Although we are not a government body we are committed to being open.

In accordance with this, we are providing the following information:

• Financial data
• Contract data
• Salaries
• Exception reporting.