The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh or ICAB yesterday awarded 24 listed and non-listed entities in 10 categories for their best presented annual reports, good corporate governance and adequate disclosures in 2015.

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed handed over the 16th ICAB National Awards among the winners that included banks, non-banks, insurers, manufacturers and NGOs at a function at Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka.

The commerce minister said chartered accountants can play a vital role in the country's economic development.

Among the private banks, Prime Bank took home the first prize, while United Commercial Bank and Eastern Bank bagged the second and third spots respectively.

However, no banks in the public sector were awarded for their annual reports this year.

IDLC Finance topped the list of non-bank financial institutions, while LankaBangla Finance was the first runner-up and Union Capital the second runner-up.

Green Delta came first in the insurance category, followed by Reliance Insurance and Prime Insurance.

Among manufacturers, RAK Ceramics (Bangladesh) was awarded the top prize, while GlaxoSmithKline Bangladesh and BSRM Steels came in second and third.

In the communication and information technology sector, Grameenphone bagged the top award.

Brac won the top position in the NGO category, while Sajida Foundation and Uddipan secured second and third places.

Infrastructure Development Company won the top award as a public sector entity, while Golden Harvest Agro Industries came in first in agriculture.  The corporate governance awards went to Prime Bank, IDLC Finance and Eastern Bank respectively.

IDLC Finance, Bank Asia and Prime Bank also bagged the first, second and third prizes in the integrated reporting category.

Apart from the awards, 17 organisations also won certificates of merit.

ICAB President Kamrul Abedin said the introduction of new accounting standards such as revenue recognition, fair value accounting have made financial reporting more challenging today.

“For implementation of these updated standards, ICAB has been working closely with relevant ministries, NBR, Bangladesh Bank, Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, securities regulator, stock exchanges and other government and non-government organisations through knowledge sharing,” he said.

The ICAB also focuses on strengthening its oversight functions of the practicing firms to be aligned with changing global standards, he added.

Md Matiul Islam, chairman of the jury board of ICAB National Award 2016, said the selection of the winners was fair and impartial. A transparent method was used to determine the winners in each category, he added. Prime Minister's Economic Affairs Adviser Mashiur Rahman also spoke.