ICPAU in partnership with the Uganda Securities Exchange and the Capital Markets Authority held the 2021 Financial Reporting (FiRe) Awards on the 10th Nov.

The 11th Edition of the FiRe Awards was held under the theme, Integrated Reporting: Building Blocks for Stakeholder Confidence.

The FiRe Awards provided an opportunity for organizations to participate, to benchmark their reports against the Institute’s criteria of good financial reports.

CPA Stephen Ineget, the chairman of the committee for the FiRe Awards in his opening remarks, said, “we have attracted 88 participants and there was a 70% participation from last year’s contestants.” Even though many were affected by the COVID pandemic they managed to participate in these awards. He added that sustainability reporting is going to be a standard and all companies in Uganda are going to be encouraged to comply to it. “We started pushing this agenda 10 years ago and we need to continue with this.”

The sustainability standard is going to come with specific requirements in respect of assurance. Environmental issues will as well be considered, since we are now talking of changing weather patterns, droughts, flooding; these we never had in the past. So we need to know what are companies doing, what’s the national agenda and how are companies fitting in. We shall also look at the social aspects together with some elements of compliance.

“I give you assurance that whatever information submitted to us was protected and used in a confidential manner, and should any information leak in the media it is not through ICPAU because our processes are water tight.”

“I would like to thank all the companies that participated in these awards since inception,” said CPA Gervase Ndyanabo. The Vision group has been there since these awards started and we have witnessed many companies improve greatly. There’s no company that has taken part in these awards and has remained the same. “I thank CPA Stephen and his committee and those that have been there before you, there is a way they give their remarks. They read the reports; some of the reports are huge but they go through each report to the dot.” CPA Gervase encouraged more companies to take part in these awards come 2022 even amidst this global COVID pandemic.

“I would like to thank the stakeholders in these awards, our partners who have made these awards a success and also the evaluators,” said CPA Derrick Nkajja, CEO of ICPAU. He encouraged companies to utilize professional accountants in the country in order to have integrated reports.

In his remarks, CPA Constant Othieno Mayende, ICPAU President said that the Financial Reporting Awards are one of the most prestigious awards in Uganda because through their performance, organizations demonstrate, resilience and commitment to ensuring sustainability. This is commendable especially in light of the present challenging times. I congratulate the 2021 winners in the various categories. Every entrant in the FiRe awards is a winner because of the professional reviews they receive after submitting their report at no cost.

Here are the 2021 FIRE Awards winners in their categories;