In his Newsletter on Annual Reports, the author, journalist and former corporate officer noted "The slate is wiped clean; we begin a new year of evaluating annual reports" from companies around the world.

He took issue with "the turmoil caused in large part by government edicts, ostensibly aimed at ensuring increased forthrightness of corporate CEOs, but which I maintain have had just the opposite effect."

He noted that the much-publicized Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOx) "was introduced amidst great fanfare as a way to help obviate corporate skullduggery. Instead, it has been used by the venal to escape responsibility for the results of the company they head."

Cato began monitoring management's assumption of responsibility for the financials among 1990 reports, when the percentage was 55. For the last two years, he said the percentage has stood at 41.5%.

"So far, among early-arriving 2003s, from companies on a fiscal-year basis, the percentage has fallen to an even 40%—two in five. So much for government meddling."

Cato evaluates annuals against standards he promulgated in 1983 (and copyrighted a year later)—15 criteria concerning what makes a good report. He also rates reports against three dozen indicators of their positive or negative nature—the Cato Positive Index. He said the 2002 crop averaged a positive 9.9% CPI, if off from 14.3% five years earlier—among 1997 reports worldwide.