The network will help identify and address sector-specific aspects for integrated reporting and help facilitate its application in public sector organisations.
Integrated reporting aims to promote a more cohesive and efficient approach to corporate reporting, drawing together factors that materially affect the ability of an organisation to create value over time.
Ian Carruthers, CIPFA’s director of policy and technical, said the creation of the pioneer network was a ‘huge step forward’ and a significant development for the public sector around the world.
He said: ‘With so much of global gross domestic product spent by public bodies, applying integrated reporting principles will give a much more transparent view of how and where their resources are used.
‘We hope that public sector organisations from across the world will take up the transformational challenge of integrated reporting and join this exciting new pioneer group.’
Lisa French, technical director at the IIRC, said the network would help public sector organisations understand and clarify the connectivity of the information they already publish.
‘The aim of many public sector bodies to present a more complete, coherent and concise picture will be aided by the International Integrated Reporting Framework.’
Bertrand Badré, managing director and group CFO at the World Bank, spoke of the benefits of integrated reporting.
He said: ‘Integrated reporting does more for an organisation than just facilitate the creation of a holistic report of overall performance. It fosters and embeds integrated thinking – everyone has a common understanding and speaks the same language.
‘At the World Bank Group, in addition to being a global development institution we are also a financial institution, and see the International Integrated Reporting Framework as a tremendous tool to help us align our performance with our strategic developmental objectives.’
Organisations interested in joining the Public Sector Pioneer Network should see the call for expressions of interest here: http://www.cipfa.org/policy-and-guidance/articles/integrated-reporting-public-sector-pioneer-network
