The Need to Build Sustainable Value-Added Reports: Seeking out Ways to Enhance the Report’s Managerial Accounting Information
Moolchand Raghunandan, Narendra Ramgulam, Cherry Buckmire, Koshina Raghunandan-Mohammed

Abstract
Accounting’s fundamental purpose is to provide information that is useful in making rational investment, credit and overall good business decisions. The issue at hand is financial reporting, its usefulness and its relevance. As such, calls have been made for companies to become more responsive to users, and to move away from the culture of secrecy. In so doing, it provides a lens through which users can perceive and understand the wealth generating activities of a company and the results of those activities. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' Special Committee on Financial Reporting (known as the Jenkins Committee), the CFA report and the ACCA have recommended that companies enhance the utility of financial reporting by using a business model that provides investors and creditors with more information than what is currently being reported. It is believed that creditors and investors will be better served in making informed decisions if they are given access to the companies' database that contains operating data, performance measures and forward looking information (Eaton and Roth 1998; CFA 2007; ACCA 2012). This paper addresses some of the above issues and highlights the Jenkins’ Ten Elements of the Comprehensive Model of Business Reporting with the aim of focusing on two key areas that are not currently disclosed by management. It also examines the need for sustainable reporting and identifies the “must-haves” of sustainability business reports as recommended by the Waikato Management School (New Zealand). The paper evaluates whether the existing financial reporting requirements of firms within the private sector of Trinidad and Tobago should be more responsive to the needs of creditors and investors given the articulation in the Jenkins Report, which was developed, based on the United States situation. An analysis of financial statements of firms in four sectors was done with a view to determine the extent to which recommended disclosures are currently provided in Trinidad and Tobago. Recommendations were made with a view of changing the prevailing culture of secrecy, followed by concluding remarks.

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