TRAC 2018: 17/18 companies do not report about country-tocountry financial data

The TRAC Vietnam Report 2018 is an independent research, based on information publicly disclosed on companies’s websites. It assesses the 45 largest companies disclosure practices, in line with international standards and regardless of their sector of activity or their ownership structure.

The report investigates the extent of information published by companies on anti-corruption programme, organisation structure and key financial information on country-by-country basis. The surveyed companies equally comprise foreign invested, publicly listed and state-owned companies, 18 of which were assessed in the TRAC Vietnam Report 2017. 

Overall Index Results:

•  Large multinational subsidiaries score higher in reporting on anti-corruption programmes, but far below the maximum percentage
• Vietnamese companies significantly lag behind in reporting on their anti-corruption programmes
• Vietnamese companies outperform multinational subsidiaries in organisation transparency
• All companies having cross border operations generally neglect country-by-country reporting
• Overall TRAC 2018 results improved compared with TRAC 2017 

Reporting on Anti-corruption Programmes:

• Multinational subsidiaries score the highest. Samsung Electronics Vietnam, Unilever Vietnam and Nestle Vietnam score 81%
• The best performance amongst local companies are Vinamilk, VPBank and Vietcombank with 42, 38 and 35%, respectively
• More than half of the companies score 0%, divided almost equally among foreign, publicly listed and state-owned companies

Organisational Transparency

• Among the three dimensions covered in the report, companies achieve the highest scores on Organisational transparency
• A third of companies achieves the maximum score of 100 per cent
• Publicly listed companies perform best with an average of 88 per cent, followed by state-owned companies with an average of 60 per cent
• Foreign subsidiaries are in the bottom grouping with an average score of 32 per cent

Country-by-Country Reporting

• 17/18 of the companies to which CBCR is applicable disclose no key financial information on their oversea subsidiaries
• MobiFone is the only exception, but if only reports on its contributions to community in Vietnam

Comparing with TRAC 2017 Report  

• Companies perform better this year on disclosing anti-corruption programmes (15 per cent average score for 45 companies in 2018 as compared to 10 per cent average score for 30 companies in 2017)

     - 10/18 companies assessed in both TRAC 2017 and TRAC 2018 improve their scores in reporting on anti-corruption programmes

      - The score of Unilever Vietnam increases the most, from 0 per cent in 2017 to 81 per cent in 2018

• Organisation Transparency shows a significant improvement (66 per cent average score for 45 companies in 2018 as compared to 32 per cent average score for 30 companies in 2017)

     - 11/18 companies assessed in both TRAC 2017 and TRAC 2018 improve their scores in organisational transparency

      - The score of Vingroup increases the most, from 25 per cent in 2017 to 100% in 2018

• Country-by-Country Reporting remains “stuck” at the bottom (0%)

- Only MobiFone scores slightly better, moving from 0% to 4% in Country-by Country Reporting
 

Full Report: TRAC VIETNAM 2018: Transparency in Corporate Reporting: Assessing the 45 largest companies