Sloppy board papers may indicate incompetence or recklessness. However it may indicate a number of other things also.

1. The paper may have been written by someone whose first language isn't English (or the language of the board). This may obscure the validity of what they are writing.

2. The writer may have a disability - I know many brilliant entrepreneurs who are profoundly dyslexic (one of whom is now being offered in excess of $1.5 billion for his business which he built from scratch. They generally don't have the ability to write board papers (from a spelling and grammatical perspective).

3. It may provide insights into the approval process within the business and identify deficiencies in the oversight process.

4. It may also possibly identify aspects of corporate culture that are dysfunctional - such as people deliberately letting material get to the board knowing that the writer will be severley treated or regarded (i.e. malicious saboutage).

I've seen all of these instances in my client organisations.