Making a mockery of pay disclosure code

IT must be hugely frustrating for regulators in the Singapore Exchange (SGX) to have to comb through annual reports when they are released after the reporting season ends, then fire off queries to companies that have not complied with the Code of Corporate Governance's guidelines on disclosing executive pay for reasons for the non-compliance - only to receive a reply which may vary in wording depending on the ingenuity of its framers but one that essentially says "because it's confidential".

That salary matters are poorly disclosed was one of the glaring findings of a survey performed by accounting firm KPMG on behalf of SGX recently. In discussing the survey results last week, SGX concluded that "adherence to guidelines of the corporate governance code can be improved and deviations should be better explained".

This statement is actually inaccurate because it pre-supposes that companies offer reasonable explanations that could do with more elaboration or improvement.