Transnet has won the 2014 Nkonki State-Owned Company (SOC) Integrated Reporting Award for the best performer.

Assurance and advisory firm Nkonki released the findings of its 2015 review of integrated reporting by South African SOCs in late July. The report, titled ‘Integrated Reporting: A New Era for Public Sector Entities in South Africa’, assessed how local parastatals measured up in terms of applying the guiding principles of and global best practice relating to integrated reporting.

The 2015 report provided insights into the extent to which SOCs had applied the International Integrated Reporting Council’s (IIRC’s) International Integrated Reporting Framework, released in December 2013, to their 2014 reports.

As part of the report, 20 of the country’s SOCs were assessed in terms of their integrated reporting performance. Air Traffic and Navigation Services ranked second and Eskom third.

Receiving the award on behalf of Transnet, commercial group executive Khomotso Phihlela said the award was an affirmation of the “tireless effort” the group put into “the succinct dissemination of information that tied in with its Market Demand Strategy”.

Overall, 55% of the SOCs reviewed scored above 50% of the expected minimum requirement for 70% of the expected requirements, which included strategic focus, connectivity of information, materiality in terms of stakeholder dealings, the nature of dealings with stakeholders, conciseness, reliability and completeness, consistency and comparability, capitals and business model concepts, content elements, the wow factor, layout, linkages and the organisation of information.

This was an improvement on the 50% achieved in 2013.

However, Nkonki pointed out that there was still a clear indication that many SOCs needed to improve their integrated reporting efforts, highlighting that many of the reports were still too long, at an average 296 pages – albeit an improvement on the previous year’s average of 418 pages.

“Despite many of the country’s SOCs coming under fire for a variety of reasons, our report indicates that they are, in fact, doing admirably in terms of their reporting standards and that their integrated reporting continues to improve,” Nkonki partner Thuto Masasa said.

The strategic focus component scored an average of 71.7%, with only one company scoring below a D rating, while the connectivity of information component scored an average of 56.3%, which indicated that it should receive more attention in future. Seven companies could not obtain a D rating or higher.

Further, materiality in terms of dealings with stakeholders scored an average of 66.9%, which the firm considered a good rating, noting, however, that it could improve. Five companies scored below a D rating.