The European Union (EU) and the World Bank, in partnership with the National Fund for Support of Reforms in Accounting, Reporting and Auditing (RSF), are pleased to announce the launch of the 2021 Best Annual Report and Transparency Award (BARTA), an annual competition to promote high quality reporting and transparency by Georgian companies. European and global developments, in particular a landmark shift towards sustainability reporting, make the award more important than ever.

BARTA, founded in 2019 within the framework of The European Union - World Bank joint project – Financial Inclusion and Accountability, comes soon after the European Union has proposed a fundamental overhaul of corporate reporting in Europe. In late April 2021, the European Commission initiated Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) as part of a sweeping package of measures to support the transition to a sustainable EU economy. As a result, sustainability reporting will assume equal prominence to financial reporting in the EU. And as the IFRS Foundation is about to produce international sustainability reporting standards we can expect the same globally.

This year’s BARTA competition will be open to all public interest entities (PIEs), which include all A and B listing companies, admitted to trading companies, banks, insurance companies etc. All listed companies will automatically be scored, provided they meet the eligibility criteria of an unqualified audit report and are in compliance with company category specific report submission deadlines. Other PIEs including those admitted to trading will need to self-nominate.

The deadline for companies to self-nominate is 31 October 2021.

As part of the BARTA’s gradual evolution to reflect the emergence of sustainability reporting, the 2021 competition will introduce a new award – for the Best Sustainability Report, using any generally recognized framework such as the Global Reporting Initiative, presented as part of the Annual Report.

To learn more about BARTA 2021 please see here.