8.10.2020, Kyiv – The Corporate Governance Professional Association, in cooperation with the Center for Corporate Social Responsibility Development (CSR) with the support of CIPE and the assistance of the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine, presented the Index of Transparency of Websites of Ukrainian Companies – 2019 in the Agency “Ukrinform”.
“Since 2011, we are the initiators of assessing the level of disclosure of information on corporate governance, relations with employees, environmental protection, and other CSR issues on the sites of Ukrainian companies. This helps demonstrate the importance of transparency and openness to business,” Maryna Saprykina, Chairman of the Board of the Centre for CSR Development, said.
The sites of companies, that were included in the TOP-100 largest taxpayers in Ukraine in 2019, according to the State Tax Service, were assessed. It was analyzed 86 sites (14 companies do not have sites), including 63 private companies and 23 state companies.
Chairman of the CGPA Management Board Oleksandr Okuniev said that such research is planned to be made regular. “We plan to repeat such research. We will try to improve the methodology, but maintain the basic criteria to compare how it was this year and how it will be in the future and make the results comparable to see whether there is progress. And this will be our contribution to the development of the national economy,” Okuniev said.
“The Index is primarily an assessment of the available information contained on the sites. We also evaluated the pages of companies’ CEO in social networks. The elements of corporate governance and social responsibility were assessed. And for three years in a row, we take the largest taxpayers according to the Ukrainian Tax Service,” – said the expert of the Center “CSR Development” Alla Zinchenko.
The criteria by which the companies’ websites were evaluated were content, reporting, accessibility, and navigation. Companies demonstrated a high level of transparency on their websites: Ukrgasbank JSC, Carlsberg Ukraine CJSC, FUIB JSC.
“If the general level of transparency is 25.5%, i.e., only a quarter of information was disclosed by the companies on their websites, for ten companies of the Index leaders it is 52.3%, i.e., they showed twice as much the information included in the assessment category”, Zinchenko noted, noting that unlike in previous years the majority in the TOP-10 of the Index are state companies.
The research showed that companies most often publish on their websites information about environmental protection, labor relations, work with communities, corporate governance, company management, supervisory board composition, information for investors, and anti-corruption programs.
According to Marina Saprykina, Director of the Center for CSR Development, the research shows that more and more Ukrainian companies make their activities public. “Tracking the Index over different years, you can see how the transparency of companies is changing. For example, since 2017, when we added management reports, we have seen how the number of company reports has grown. The research does not stand still, times change, new factors are added, criteria are important,” Saprykina noted.
Oleksandr Okuniev also noted: “For the first time we decided to pay attention to the personal leadership of top managers of companies, because, in our opinion, the company professes, for example, support of environmental projects, the director has simply humanly to share these ideas, personally support projects in this area as a citizen, and not just as an employer.
The leaders of the Index are Ukrgasbank JSC, Carlsberg Ukraine CJSC, and FUIB JSC. The top ten companies with the highest level of information disclosure included: SE NAEK Energoatom, JSC NAK Naftogaz of Ukraine, SE NAEK Ukrenergo, JSC ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, JSC Ukrhydroenergo, JSC Farmak, JSC Ukrzaliznytsia.
According to sector analysis, the high level of information disclosure was demonstrated by companies in the financial sector, transport, and electricity supply. The lowest level of transparency in the construction sector and the industry of temporary accommodation and catering. State-owned companies have higher transparency levels than privately-owned companies by almost all Transparency Index criteria and components.
The level of transparency of the TOP-10 companies’ sites by 2019 was 52.3%, while the level of the TOP-100 companies is 25.5%. Companies on corporate pages mainly disclose information about their policies and programs in environmental protection, labor relations, work with communities, and some corporate governance issues. There is practically no information about human rights programs, work with suppliers, and management leadership, including social issues. Nor is the practice of disclosing information about ownership structure, establishing corporate social responsibility management structures, and engaging stakeholders.
Only 31 companies among the largest taxpayers in Ukraine published their Management Reports 2019. Only six companies published non-financial reports for 2019 on their pages. Seven companies noted the Sustainability Goals on their corporate website pages.
About the Index: The assessment is based on information posted on the company’s website. The method of the evaluation was developed by Beyond Business (Israel) in cooperation with the Center for CSR Development and was updated in subsequent years. For example, the addition of 2019 was the assessment of new criteria: responsible leadership, gender equality, and were expanded indicators of corporate governance. The Company receives points for having policies and results on corporate governance, fair operating practices, human rights and labor practices, environmental protection, responsible consumption, and social relations. In addition, management reports, non-financial reports of companies placed on websites, navigation of websites, and CSR information availability are evaluated.