Accountants, auditors and preparers are
opposed to multinational companies reporting on a
country-by-country basis, according to a report by the European
Commission (EC).
The EC said overall the consultation shows a
diverse pattern of opinions across the several categories of
respondents with 60% arguing that country-by-country reporting by
multinational companies would not be meaningful to company
investors.
However, users of financial reports and other
respondents are in favour of the requirement.
The findings are on the back of it’s
consultation on the desirability of country-by-country reporting by
multinational companies, which the EC launched in October 2010
after calls were made to impose additional transparency
requirements on large companies operating in third countries.
The consultation found that for the extractive
industry, in particular oil and gas, country-by-country reporting
would be conducive to improving domestic accountability and
governance in resource-rich countries.
The EC received a total of 73 responses, with
most responses coming from the UK and Germany with the majority
(73%) of responses coming from the preparers of the financial
reports.
