Study hails STO as most transparent state firm
Only 11 companies published annual reports during the period.
By
Ahmed Mizyal
The State Trading Organisation (STO) was the most transparent government company last year, according to a report by Transparency Maldives.
The Corporate Governance Transparency Index (CGTI) report on 32 state-owned companies released on Tuesday looked at the transparency of companies under six main categories, 38 parameters.
The six categories are:
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1-
Ownership, Policy and Company Objectives
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2-
Organisation, Operations and Performance
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3-
Transactions between the State
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4-
Transactions with the private sector
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5-
CSR, Internal Control and Corporate Integrity
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6-
Board of Directors
According to the CGTI report, STO was leading in three of these categories.
They are: Ownership, Policy and Company Objectives; Organisation, Operations and Performance, and CSR, Internal Control and Corporate Integrity.
STO also scored 82% in the public-private sector transactions with a mark of 82% in each category.
Of the 38 criteria considered in the CGTI report, 16 are required to be included in the company's annual report. Other matters are permitted to be disclosed under the Access to Information Act.
Data for the CGTI report were collected from August 14 to September 3 last year. According to the PCB rules, the annual report must be published within six months after the end of the year.
The data for the report were based on annual reports for 2022. Only 11 companies published annual reports during the period.
In addition, the extent to which corporate governance mechanisms are published on the official websites of the companies, many companies scored less than 50% in this section. STO got the highest marks with 67%.
