Published in the National Business Review of 10 August 2007

John Bishop analyses the winners of the Institute of Chartered Accountants best annual report awards.

The annual report judged the country's best is one of its longest.

At 220 pages the 2005/06 report from the Wellington City Council is more than twice as long as the best report from a listed company, Auckland International Airport Ltd, at 86 pages.

Christchurch International Airport Ltd won the best small to medium sized enterprise category and its annual report is only 66 pages.

According to the judges in the Institute of Chartered Accountants Annual Report Awards Wellington City Council's report was clearly written with the target audience in mind.

"This distinguishes it from a lot of other annual reports. Its report maintains an attractive format with substantial content. Readers interested in a particular area of the Council's operations can zoom in to the relevant part of the report and get a complete picture."

On the first page the report states that it is a snapshot of the council's activities. "It's our way of making ourselves accountable to you - the people of Wellington."

The massive report is colour coded. Of the twelve colours used, four are shades of green with the accounts, the biggest section at 66 pages, in grey.

The core of the report is the nine achievement areas with their 44 sub categories and 84 sub sub categories.

The nine areas cover built environment, community health and safety, culture and arts, city economy, natural environment, resources and waste, transport, and governance and citizen information. They take up 117 pages.

It reflects the careful breakdown of goals into tasks and activities and the allocation of money and measures against each of these, which reflects hours of meticulous planning. The management and presentation of the data is impressive and much use of made of the Council's annual Residents Satisfaction Survey.

One remarkable feature is the virtual absence of the councilors. The Mayor and the Chief Executive each get a page and a small head and shoulders picture at the front of the report, but it is not until page 197 that the councilors are listed, with small black and white head shots opposite their meeting attendance record.

Staff get the same understated treatment. The senior management team is named and each job is described. There is group shot of the team, but names are not allocated to faces.

There are 92 pictures and ten logos in the report, excluding charts, tables and graphs and other graphic devices repeated periodically throughout the document.

This is less a snapshot than the full family album, less an accountability document than a photographic essay on the city. In contrast there are 22 pictures in the Auckland Airport report and 25 in the Christchurch Airport report.

The report from Auckland International Airport Ltd gives its eight chosen highlights a page each including a substantial picture. These are: the goal of 24 million passengers by 2025, the new generation of aircraft, zero major incidents, handling 30 000 customers a day, the company's landholdings, the value of the company to New Zealand, one marae, and the $100m dividend paid to shareholders.

The report also devotes three pages and a one page picture to a discussion of sustainability and the environment, and five pages plus a one page picture to regulation and pricing. There is also a substantial discussion over seven pages (including tables) of the company's financial and performance numbers, before the accounts and notes.

The senior management team is highlighted. Each member is profiled with a brief career background, a description of their responsibilities and a personal outlook statement, typically couched in optimistic and visionary language.

The report from Christchurch International Airport Ltd also highlights sustainability, but it takes only one page. The six strategic goals are set out in two pages, but each of the goals is then discussed in a three page fold out, typically using a case study approach.

For example, in the discussion of the goal of "growing our low cost carrier base", the two low cost carriers, Jetstar and Pacific Blue endorse the airport company's approach. Korean Airlines does the same in the report on joint venture marketing initiatives, as does NZ Post in reporting on the development of a new mail processing centre as part of the airport company's goal to diversify its income streams.

CIAL also report on managing business risk (improving baggage screening), on the environmental impact of its business (the recycling scheme is detailed) and on sponsorship (support for the Queenstown Winter Festival).

Wellington City's report was also commended for its governance reporting, "an honest and comprehensive report of the challenges faced by a local government," the judges said.

Auckland Airport's Chairman Wayne Boyd discloses that the board took independent advice in seeking a rise in directors' fees. Christchurch Airport's Chairman Syd Bradley does not mention governance in his section of the report.