Owing to serious criticisms of industrial era financial statements, the AICPA's Special Committee on Financial Repwrtiug (The Jenkins Committee) recommended sweeping changes to financial statements in their final report: AICPA. Report of the Special Committee on Financial Reporting (The Jenkins Committee), "Improving Business Reporting:

A Customer Focus: Meeting the Information Needs of Investors and Creditors" (1994).

However, the recommendations have received mixed reviews. For example, as reported in the September 30, 1994, Public Accounting Report, Dennis Beresford, FASB chair, stated that, "It is going to be a very important document for us, a real stimulus for changes and improvement in financial reporting over the next five to ten years."

In contrast, Frank Borelli, the Financial Executive Institute's CFO Advisory chair, thought otherwise, stating that ". . . the committee's recommendations can be viewed as very self-serving. It looks as if they are trying to generate more services, which equates to more revenue."

Required: 

Select an annual report either from the annual report file in the AICPA's National Automated Accounting Research System (NAARS) or from a library, and prepare a report that:
1. Documents and criticizes the key recommendations of the Jenkins Committee report.
2. Explains how the Jenkins Committee's recommendations would bear on the annual report you selected.
3. Explains nonfinancial disclosures you think would improve the annual report given the company's industry, for example, the identity and stability of foreign crude oil supply sources in the oil & gas industry.