Reporting for duty

A high-level committee has been formed to look at the way risk, governance and green issues are represented in companies’ financial reporting.

Co-chairing the committee’s working group is former ICAEW president Paul Druckman.

What’s happened?

A group of some the world’s foremost accounting representatives have banded together, with the help of the Prince of Wales’ Accounting for Sustainability project (A4S) and the Global Reporting Initiative, to launch the International Integrated Reporting Committee (IIRC).

Looking beyond the long titles and acronyms reveals hugely respected finance specialists – Mervyn King, Sir David Tweedie and IFAC CEO Ian Ball to name but a few of the 53 experts collaborating to drag reporting into the 21st century.

Their aim is to integrate important aspects of company life, such as understanding risk, governance and sustainability, into financial reporting.

For the irrepressible Druckman, a former schoolteacher, his appointment is yet another string to his bow. He is a well-known figure in the accounting technology industry, having run his own company and served for several years as chairman of Access Technology Group.

Druckman had a strong presence as president of the ICAEW back in 2004, promoting the cause of medium-sized businesses which he argued need different help compared to small businesses – “putting the M back into SME”, as his campaign was titled. This led him to co-found the M Institute, a not-for-profit think tank devoted to medium-sized businesses.

Rather than take the easy life after his stint at the institute, he joined A4S as a steering board member, with sustainability also a passion of his.

In 2008 Druckman took over as chair of the Prince’s project and now, potentially, takes up his biggest role yet, as co-chair of the IIRC alongside Ball.

He has already braved the cameras promoting the committee.

Appearing on CNBC’s European Closing Bell, Druckman told his interviewees that rather than add complexity, the project was about “building on what’s already there”.

“These silos of information don’t show the strategic intent – and what it’s trying to do as a business,” he added.

What happens next?

Despite the hoo-ha that greeted the launch of the committee, further details about when it is going to report back to the public on its findings have been sparse, to say the least.
However, Accountancy Age understands that Druckman and the working party team are beavering away coming up with an initial set of proposals. They hope to present their findings to the steering committee in the form of a framework by the end of the year.
Presentation to the G20 could be made in 2011.