The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) yesterday awarded 22 listed and non-listed firms across 13 different sectors for presenting the best annual reports, integrated reporting, and corporate governance disclosures.
Apart from recognising gold, silver and bronze winners in most sectors, a merit award was conferred to eight entities for achieving the minimum threshold scores.
Bank Asia PLC was declared the overall winner, according to a press release from ICAB.
Salehuddin Ahmed, adviser to the finance and commerce ministries, handed over the “24th ICAB National Award for Annual Reports, Integrated Reporting, and Corporate Governance Disclosures-2023” to the winners at an event at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Dhaka.
Among private sector banks, Bank Asia PLC and Shahjalal Islami Bank PLC became joint gold award winners while City Bank PLC won the silver award and BRAC Bank PLC and United Commercial Bank PLC jointly secured the bronze award.
In the financial services sector category, IPDC Finance Limited received the gold award and IDLC Finance PLC got the bronze award.
In the manufacturing sector, British American Tobacco Bangladesh won the gold award, Walton Hi-Tech Industries PLC won the silver award and Reckitt Benckiser (Bangladesh) PLC won the bronze award.
In the general insurance sector, Green Delta Insurance Company Limited won the gold award, Reliance Insurance Limited won the silver award and City General Insurance Company Limited won the bronze award.
In corporate governance, Bank Asia PLC won the gold award, Shahjalal Islami Bank PLC won the silver award and BRAC Bank PLC won the bronze award.
In the communications and IT sector, Robi Axiata Limited won the gold award, Grameenphone Ltd won the silver award and Genex Infosys Limited won the bronze award.
In some categories, awards were not given across the board.
In the power and energy category, United Power Generation and Distribution Company Ltd won the silver award.
In the diversified holdings sector, Advanced Chemical Industries Limited/ACI Limited won the bronze award.
In the life insurance sector, National Life Insurance Company Limited became the bronze award winner.
In the NGOs/NPOs sector, SAJIDA Foundation won the silver award while Shakti Foundation for Disadvantaged Women won the bronze award.
In the service sector category, Unique Hotel & Resorts PLC won the bronze award.
In the integrated reporting category, Bank Asia PLC and Shahjalal Islami Bank PLC jointly won the gold award while IDLC Finance won the silver award and BRAC Bank PLC won the bronze award.
An 11-member jury recommended the list of the winners. The ICAB Review Committee for Published Accounts and Reports (RCPAR) received annual reports from 76 entities.
ICAB President Mohammed Forkan Uddin spoke on the occasion.
Winners were not awarded for infrastructure and construction, and agriculture sectors as the participating entities scored below the threshold mark, according to the ICAB press release.