Financial Disclosure by Australian Residential Aged Care Providers: Are They Suffering Dementia?

Abstract

Australia’s residential aged care (RAC) sector is significant in terms of its aging population, which is consistent with most developed countries. It is, therefore, vital for stakeholders to have access to RAC providers’ financial information to make informed and timely decisions. It is often difficult for stakeholders to accurately compare the financial information of RAC providers due to there being a small timeframe to make decisions with high emotional content. This research will enable RAC providers and their stakeholders to consider the current level of disclosure required and the level of voluntary disclosures providers in the sector choose to disclose, and whether this level of disclosure is adequate for stakeholders to make informed decisions. Information was gathered from the RAC provider’s annual and/or financial reports, to determine their level of financial disclosure, over a 3-year period. It was found that the RAC providers’ level of financial disclosure could be more consistent and adequate by complying with the Australian Financial Reporting Framework, including an independent audit report. Hence, this research provides new insights and a basis for further research to determine whether the Australian RAC sector has improved their consistency and adequacy of their financial disclosures through the use of the proposed RAC general purpose financial reports Framework.

Keywords: Residential Aged Care Governance; Disclosure; Accountability

Australian Academy of Accounting and Finance Review, vol 4, issue 4, October 2018, pp 193-205