We study the role of accounting and sustainability disclosures in the transparency of mining waste management when there are negative social and environmental outcomes. We report on a longitudinal descriptive case built on two events from Brazil using mandated sustainability and accounting reports. The appearance of transparency, facilitated by corrupt practices and actors, and its links with environmental and social disasters, is explored through performativity theory. Saying something can produce a real outcome that changes reality; therefore, this study counts specific words and how they are used in sustainability and financial reports before and after each event. We ask if accounting reports resulting from professional practices and artifacts deter corruption in publicly traded companies as much as mandated environmental and social reports. Corruption is understood as the devastation of the poor and we explore the disclosures given to stakeholders as a form of transparency. We conclude that neither the apparent transparency nor the complete silence was able to avoid social catastrophes in Brazil affecting poor rural areas; however, accounting reports give the appearance of more transparency than sustainability reports. However, accounting practices and artifacts provide more disclosures increasing the visibility of suspected corruption, with the difference explained by the extensive accounting regulation that restricts management exclusionary practices for their reports. A description of transparency through the role of accounting and sustainability disclosures enhances our understanding of fertile grounds for corrupt practices in Latin America. The way transparency is enacted, predisposes government officers, managers and auditors to engage in corrupt practices.
