CSR funds being misused, claims FPCCI standing committee

Islamabad: Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) Central Standing Committee on Insurance Convener Dr Murtaza Mughal on Tuesday said many public and private sector companies are using Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds for personal and political gains.

CSR policies in many companies are leading to corporate corruption which should be noticed by the concerned quarters, he said. In a statement issued here today, Dr Murtaza Mughal said that CSR funds which were supposed to help society are wasted to please influential and arranging irrelevant activities.

He said that there are many hireable charitable trusts to help companies fabricate the CSR spending while whitening of black money has also a common practice. Dr Murtaza Mughal said that education scholarships are usually given to the children of influential who can return favours by abusing their powers while such educational institutions are also funded which in turn, allow free education to the company officials.

He said that the government should strengthen CSR laws, make proper audit and reporting mandatory or take all such funds into its own control to spend it transparently on the poor and coronavirus prevention.