Disclosure of information technology governance by South African state-owned entities

Abstract: Information Technology (IT) has become an invaluable business asset, making IT governance an important part of corporate governance. State-owned entities (SOEs) are fundamental to governments’ structure, as they assist in the pursuit of political, social and economic agendas. Particularly in South Africa, these entities play a significant role in socio-economic development. Furthermore, given the corruption challenges experienced by SOEs in South Africa and other developing countries, it is essential that entities – funded through taxpayers’ money – have structures that govern and oversee IT. Using content analysis to extract data from annual integrated reports, this paper explored the King III governance disclosures of SOEs. The findings suggest that in general, there is poor disclosure of IT governance by SOEs, as only one entity met all the recommended King III disclosure principles. Furthermore, the study found that although most SOEs do disclose some form of IT governance information, these disclosures often lacked detail. It is recommended that SOEs include a specific section dedicated to IT in their integrated reports, which would increase compliance with the King Code principles. This research makes a useful contribution to prioritising IT governance policies, especially due to the significant spend by most organisations on IT