The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), in partnership with the Institute of Internal Auditors, has published a report with recommendations for establishing internal controls on sustainability-related data, based on insights from its members and a survey of 900 professionals.
Amongst respondents to the survey, only 29% professionals said the adequacy of their controls was very or extremely high. Half of the respondents said their controls were moderately adequate, and 21% said the adequacy was minimal.
Most respondents said poor quality data (59%), lack of knowledge and skills (56%), lack of resources (56%) and poorly defined processes (53%) are challenges that have a high level of impact on internal controls over sustainability data.