Controller and Auditor General Lynn Pamment found that the overall content of 73% of annual reports failed to meet expected standards.

However, although the content of most 2020 annual reports did not meet best practice, she concludes that there was an overall improvement from the previous year. 

Part of this, she found, was due to covid-19, which “provided a focus for entities to tell a clearer story about their purpose, the decisions taken, and the arrangements put in place to address challenges caused by the pandemic”.

Mrs Pamment does not publicly rank or grade the 51 entities she has reviewed in terms of the quality of their annual reports, although she recognises the Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority as making the biggest improvement in 2020, after its demerger from pan-island CICRA.

She said: “Annual reports are a fundamental part of ensuring the accountability of entities. Few States-established or States-controlled entities have made significant progress in improving their annual reports for 2020 and significant improvements are needed for most entities to meet best practice.

“All entities should consider the issues raised in this report and my Annual Reporting Good Practice Guide and seek to improve the accessibility and content of their 2021 annual reports. 

“Annual reports should be clearer about entities’ objectives, and the extent to which objectives have been met, governance arrangements, operations, remuneration and workforce matters. 

“Entities should ensure that their reports are publicly available and are easy to locate.”

The C&AG findings included:

  • Only 15% of entities produced a single annual report comprising an identifiable performance report, accountability report and financial statements. Few performance or accountability reports were signed or dated by the Chief Executive or equivalent.

  • 55% of the content of annual reports was unchanged compared to 2019 when it came to meeting best practice. 9% had declined and 36% showed improvement. 

  • Key areas where annual reports could be improved include: setting out objectives, analysing associated risks and summarising performance and including key performance indicators to measure performance against objectives.