THE DISCLOSURE OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: A TICK-BOX EXERCISE OR NOT?

Year 2020, Volume: 12 Issue: 1, 50 - 65, 19.02.2020

Heleen Janse Van Vuuren

Abstract

King Committee published the first King Report on corporate governance in 1994. The King II and III Reports, implemented in 2002 and 2010 respectively, placed progressively more emphasis on proper disclosure of corporate governance practices. King IV, published in 2016, strives to encourage management to focus on governance and not regard it as mindless compliance. Different stakeholders raised concerns that the continued corporate scandals could be, on a large scale, attributed to shortcomings in corporate governance practices. One of the objectives of King IV is to promote corporate governance as an integral part of effective management.
The aim of this study is to assess whether the disclosure on governance, by selected Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE)-listed companies, is sufficient to confirm to users of financial statements that sound corporate governance is a priority in these companies. A documentary review of the latest governance reports of these companies was done to evaluate compliance with the King IV principles in general.
The results indicated that all of these companies disclosed that they are in general complying with the 17 principles of King IV; however, the ongoing global and local corporate failures may be an indication that sound corporate governance is not a priority, but is still dealt with as a “tick-box” exercise.
The recommendation from this study is that boards of directors should be held accountable for setting practices and strategies that are aligned with the King codes, to ensure effective management and control of business entities.

Keywords

Corporate governance disclosure, JSE-listed companies, King II, King III, King IV

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