Expectations of Stakeholders on the Information Disclosure from the Malaysian State Islamic Religious Councils (SIRCs) Reporting

Abstract

A good report should satisfy the expectations of the users based on their need of information. The present study views the users as a wide range of stakeholder groups as the concerned under the banner of public accountability, in which it explicates the right of the public to information about public sector organisations in discharging their accountability. Due to this, public managers are accountable to provide satisfactory information to the public for their actions and inactions to prevent any sanctions. SIRCs are not exempt. This study aims to identify the stakeholders’ expectations of information disclosure from the SIRCs annual reports by conducting an online questionnaire survey. Such annual reports consist of financial and non-financial information, the fact that the annual report is the only single document that can provide information comprehensively about the reporting entity as that commonly practiced among the companies. The findings reveal that both financial and non-financial information disclosure are important. External stakeholders expected more information from the SIRCs’ annual reports than SIRCs themselves. However, on average there is no significant difference in the responses of the disclosure items between internal and external stakeholders. But, there is significant difference across the six sub-stakeholder groups. Strategic information is the only information category significantly different. Nevertheless, comparing means for each of the disclosure item in every category of information, it infers several significant differences in their information expectations. As such, this study can be an avenue for future development of reporting framework to fairly satisfy the expectations of multiple stakeholders specifically for SIRCs in Malaysia yet it might be useful also for other not-for-profit (NPO), charities, religious bodies and public sectors in other countries.