Practical commentary on preparing management report and disclosure of COVID-19 pandemic impact

Abstract

In Ukraine the provisions of Directive 2013/34/EU on the disclosure of financial and non-financial information by certain types of enterprises in the management report have been implemented in national legislation. At the same time, the application of the management report has raised a number of issues that need to be addressed at the regulatory level, the main ones being the problem of information asymmetry and the disclosure by companies of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Practical commentary on preparing management report and disclosure of COVID-19 pandemic impact (Practical commentary) are designed in accordance with the requirements of national legislation taking into account recommendations of recognized international initiatives on the issue of non-financial reporting. Today, the disclosure of material information on the impact of uncertainty, in particular the pandemic caused by coronavirus disease (COVID-19), is of great relevance. The Practical commentary provides a list of indicators. Disclosure of these indicators will allow companies to provide stakeholders with the opportunity to make conclusions about the activities of enterprises under uncertainty. The objective of the initiative is to help undertakings disclose relevant, useful, consistent and comparable information on environmental, social and managerial aspects of business activities, in particular on impact of pandemic of COVID-19. This will be in line with best practices and appropriate international initiatives in the area of entity’s non-financial reporting. The developed Practical Commentary is aimed at solving the organizational issues of preparation of the management report in Ukraine. The Recommendations are general and complementary but do not replace the provisions of international documents. In order to enhance the quality of preparation of the management report by domestic enterprises for stakeholders through the disclosure of high-quality, relevant, useful, comparable financial and non-financial information the Practical Commentary includes the recommendations on principles, content and order of preparation of the management report, the list of indicators cover the environmental, economic and governmental aspects of business activities based on existing provisions of international documents. Also, the Practical commentary provides a list of indicators. Disclosure of these indicators will allow companies to provide stakeholders with the opportunity to make conclusions about the activities of enterprises under uncertainty.