While a number of us still refer to it as the “new” Companies Act, the Companies Act 2008 (“the Act”) has been in force now for over eight years. One of the requirements it introduced has become more of a talking point in the last year however with the CIPC now requiring all audited financial statements to be submitted via XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language). The requirement of the Act to which I am referring is described in Regulation 26(2) and states that every company must calculate its Public Interest Score (“PI Score”) at the end of each financial year.
The PI Score approach brings South Africa in line with similar practices in other countries and takes into account various matters, such as employees, shareholders, liability and turnover. When calculating a company’s PI Score, this needs to be done for the company individually and not at a consolidated level.
A company’s PI Score will determine if its annual financial statements must be audited or independently reviewed, what financial reporting standards need to be adopted and whether the company must appoint a social and ethics committee. The table below sets out the various implications of different score categories:
| PI SCORE CATEGORY | AFS COMPILED | AUDIT / INDEPENDENT REVIEW (IR) | FINANCIAL REPORTING STANDARD |
| All Companies – not owner managed: |
No prescribed framework
