SA companies perform well compared with international companies when it comes to accountability. Though SA companies on average scored 39% on the Accountability Rating, global companies scored an average of 35%.
Lead researcher Ven Pillay says that the implementation of sector charters, such as the mining and financial sector charters, have helped SA companies to be more transparent and accountable.
If the Global 100 list were integrated with the 51 companies ranked in SA, six of the SA Top 10 companies would occupy the combined Top 10 list.
The highest-scoring company in SA scored 0,25% higher than the top global company.
"It shows that local standards and approaches to accountability are in line with, if not better than, global best practice standards," says Pillay. "But the overall performance of companies on accountability is still shockingly low."
SA companies scored 3% higher on the strategy domain than international companies and 4% higher on the governance measurement. Higher scores were also achieved in stakeholder engagement (11%) and public disclosure (9%). Global companies performed better in performance management (2% higher) and assurance (5% higher), compared with SA companies.
Sector comparisons indicated that the materials sector in SA obtained higher scores in all domains compared with the global materials sector, while the global computer & telecommunications sector scored much higher than the corresponding SA sector.
Of note is that nine of the top 10 ranked companies are dual listed.
"It's difficult to say whether it's because these companies operate internationally that they have more mature reporting and accountability structures or whether it's because they integrate accountability issues into their corporate strategy that they have become world-class businesses," says De Jongh. "Nonfinancial issues always become financial issues further down the line."
