Level of Disclosure of Environmental Provisions and Contingent Liabilities

Abstract

Disclosure allows accounting to achieve its main objective, that of providing useful and reliable information to its users. Thus, based on the Theory of Disclosure, this study aims to identify the level of disclosure of provisions and environmental contingent liabilities of companies with high potential for pollution. For this, descriptive research with a qualitative approach was carried out, applying the content analysis technique in the financial statements between the years 2010 and 2019. For data collection, a checklist prepared according to the established criteria was used. by the Accounting Pronouncements Committee No. 25 (CPC 25) for the recognition and disclosure of provisions and contingent liabilities of an environmental nature. The findings reveal a low disclosure of the established items, despite the growing number of affirmative observations in the last three years. As for the level of disclosure, the results showed that the most prominent segment was the extraction and treatment of minerals, with a percentage of 73% in the group of companies listed on the ISE. Regarding the analysis of the groups, the average of the companies listed and not listed on the Corporate Sustainability Index (ISE) was calculated, showing through the Student's T test the existence of a statistically significant difference between the averages, of 27.66 and 15 ,21, respectively, accepting and rejecting the research null hypothesis. However, the need for other analysis methods was identified to confirm whether the companies included in the ISE have a higher level of disclosure.