Do Sri Lankan Companies Disclose Sustainable Performance Satisfactorily?

Abstract

Disclosure in sustainability practices has gained a prominent place in corporate reporting due to its importance as a medium of flowing information to stakeholders. As a result, managers of commercial organizations no longer focus solely on reporting the business performance but its engagement in economic, social and environmental activities adhering to given standards. This paper attempts to analyse the state of sustainability reporting in Sri Lanka and measure the level of its compliance to GRI, G4 index in reporting. Accordingly, 18 listed Sri Lankan companies consecutively recognized for their sustainability reports by professional accounting bodies were selected and analysed for the past five years (2014/2015-2018/2019). The compliance to GRI – G4 core were analysed by deploying the scale developed by Dragmoir (2010) followed by a trend analysis for each selected. Based on the research findings of the study it was concluded that despite not having attained the expected state of sustainability reporting Sri Lanka is on a continuously improving journey to achieve the desired state. The level of sustainability reporting by the leading organizations recognized for sustainable practices were revealed by the study and this finding impose major implications to governing bodies of corporations, policy makers, stakeholders as well as the government. Further the study would be helpful to understand whether there is a gap between the desired state of sustainability reporting and the current state of sustainability reporting or not.