THE CGA CERTFICATION IMPERATIVE
Corporate governance, or rather lack of it, has been cited as one of the main reasons for most spectacular international corporate failures. Most companies claim to endorse the principles, and profess to comply with the spirit and standards of good corporate governance. However, in spite of the PR and Annual Report content published by listed companies, there is often a significant gap between what they say they do and what they actually do – as one commentator put it, ‘When the tide is out, you can see who is swimming naked.’

As a result of these governance failures there is an overwhelming move to sustainable investment and the incorporation of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors in investment mandates and strategies- driven by the initiatives such as UNPRI, CRISA, PF130 and the newly revamped King III, there is a heightened need for all stakeholders to be able to implement and report on their governance (including ESG) status.

Three major stakeholders are involved in the process of ensuring that the principles of sustainable development are met, through the application of responsible investment practices:-

• Asset owners – driven by initiatives of the FSB through the updated Reg 28 and PF 130, will require assurance that asset managers are properly exercising their fiduciary and ESG responsibilities.
  
  
• Asset managers need tools to assist them in meeting the governance expectations of the asset owners to measure ESG in the investee companies and
  
  
• Companies require the means to be able to assure both the aforementioned stakeholders that their ESG expectations are being met.

Already in 2001 – way ahead of its time - CGA identified the need for an independent rating service that meets all the needs of the above stakeholders – a need that has recently escalated in the light of the global financial crisis and the move towards ESG and sustainability.

Through the application of our unique bespoke governance methodologies, we are able to provide a fully independent evaluation and certification of the standard of governance in your company. Results are reported as follows - a score between:-

60% - 70% 71% -80% > 81% > 81% for > 3 years

CGA Bronze Governance Award CGA Silver Governance Award CGA Gold Governance Award CGA Platinum Award

In addition, we are also able to offer a comparative assessment of the levels of conformance against the publicly available rating standards set by the Public Investment Corporation and the SRI Index of the JSE.

CGA is the only local company that can claim to have been rating companies on the JSE for the past five years using its own unique certification methodology. Furthermore, we opened offices in London in 2007 and are in to process of expanding our service offering to companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Contact us to find out how we can enable you to be able to offer and independently verified ESG rating to your stakeholders and investors with the added advantage of being able to benchmark your performance against that of your peers.