Evaluating the effectiveness of disclosure of financial information by corporate organisations in Uganda

Abstract

The recent past economic scam in Uganda from different government entities, and other corporate organizations like the banks led to a wider recognition of the importance of corporate transparency and disclosures in financial dealings. This prompted the research into the disclosure of financial information in this study. The objectives of this study were to find out the level of disclosure of information in the financial reporting of different organizations in Uganda, effectiveness of the application of disclosures in the corporate organizations, getting a clearer picture of the ‘disclosure problems and its solutions and lastly, finding out if there were standard format for disclosing financial information in the different organizations. According to the results from the different companies, it showed that the level of disclosure of financial information greatly vary from one organization to another. The variations in the levels of disclosure were found to be as a result of differences in level of education, experience, type of the organization, the nature of the work and the user needs that vary. One other prominent issue is that of information under load in the corporate organizations in Uganda instead of information overload like in developed countries which led to questions about the effectiveness of financial disclosure of information in the corporate world in this country. Inadequate disclosures according to findings contributed to lack of transparency, lack of trust, and, in turn, low rate of investment. Lastly, the research has made some recommendations and further areas of study. One of those recommendations was that the government of Uganda should take a keen interest in the development of efficient disclosures of information through setting standards and regulations that strictly monitor affairs of corporate companies beyond just report monitoring.