Declining anti-corruption disclosures across Asean a “red flag”.

Singapore-listed companies scored 63% in the latest study on corporate disclosures on business integrity conducted by the Centre for Governance and Sustainability at the National University Of Singapore (NUS) Business School.

The biennial study evaluates the anti-corruption disclosures of the top 50 listed companies by market capitalisation in five Asean countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. 

This year’s score, which looks at companies’ FY2023 disclosures till Sept 30, 2024, is six percentage points lower compared to the city-state’s score of 69% in 2022. According to the study, the lower percentage was due to information that was previously published on the companies’ public websites shifting to companies’ intranets instead. 

As such, the information is now only accessible to relevant stakeholders including employees, suppliers, agents and representatives. “Internalised policies for confidentiality reasons came at the expense of disclosure performance,” adds the survey.

When it came to their disclosures on complying with relevant laws and their disclosures on their commitment to protecting whistleblowers against reprisal, Singapore companies scored 100% on both counts, which is an improvement from 99% and 94% back in 2022.

Singapore also saw improvements in the disclosures of prohibition of political contribution and application of anti-corruption policies to both directors and employees by 11 and nine percentage points to 50% and 84% respectively.

However, the main contributor that weighed the scores of Singaporean companies down heavily was the 34- and 32-percentage point decrease in the disclosure of leadership support of anti-corruption and disclosure on anti-corruption policy review and outcomes respectively. 

Among the five countries polled, the overall average disclosure fell from 69% in 2022 to 64% with Singapore placing third. Thailand came in first at 80% and Malaysia stood in second place at 75%. The Philippines came in fourth at 55% with the sharpest decrease of 11 percentage points from 2022 while Indonesia came in last at 48%.

Indonesia, however, was the only country with an increase from the 2022 results of four percentage points. 

The results were concerning to Professor Lawrence Loh, director at NUS’s Centre for Governance and Sustainability, who called the decline in anti-corruption disclosures across Asean a “red flag”.

He adds that companies should strengthen their governance disclosures to improve transparency and trust, which can enhance the belief and trust of investors and foster a more stable and sustainable business environment.