The Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) today announced that its Corporate Reporting Awards for private sector enterprises will expand to include federal Crown corporations in 2007.

“Crown corporations add billions to the Canadian economy,” said CICA’s president & CEO, Kevin Dancey, FCA. “Like private investors, the public deserves the highest level of accountability and transparency. With the expansion of the Corporate Reporting Awards, Crown corporations will be judged for the first time alongside private sector enterprises. This builds upon the CICA’s mandate to protect the public and increase the efficiency of Canada’s capital markets by developing guidelines that enhance corporate reporting processes.”

For more than 54 years, the awards have recognized excellence and best practices in annual financial reporting within the private sector. Awards have been granted for annual reports, governance disclosure, electronic disclosure and sustainable development reporting.

The Auditor General of Canada’s Award for Excellence in Annual Reporting by Crown Corporations has recognized exemplary achievement in annual reporting among federal Crown corporations since 1994.

“The two awards programs have a common goal of excellence in corporate reporting,” said Auditor General Sheila Fraser, “and excellent corporate reporting is required to meet today’s increasing expectations of transparency. I am pleased that these programs will be under one banner, under the CICA’s leadership.”

Currently the awards for public companies honours 21 recipients based on industry sectors. Some past winners include TELUS Corporation, PotashCorp and BCE Inc. Past winners of the Auditor General of Canada Award for Excellence in Annual Reporting include the Canada Deposit Insurance Corp. and Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation.

Award winners for this year will be announced on December &. The first set of combined awards for federal Crown corporations will be announced in 2007. Provincial Crown corporations may be included in the future.