An analysis of the impact of King II on HIV/AIDS disclosure in annual reports

Abstract

The content of the 2002 and 2003 annual reports of companies listed on the JSE Securities Exchange was analysed to determine how many disclose HIV/AIDS information. This was done to determine whether there were notable changes in both the number of disclosing entities and the content of disclosure between the two years as a result of the recommendations of the Second King Report on Corporate Governance on HIV/AIDS disclosure. A greater number of companies disclosed HIV/ AIDS information in their annual reports in 2003, but the overall number of disclosing entities remained low. An analysis of the content in HIV/ AIDS disclosure also indicates inconsistencies in disclosure practices that might negate the usefulness of the information to users of annual reports.