A company was funding health care spends under its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. It later engaged a consultancy to conduct a review of its programme, only to discover that some of the funds went to patients that didn’t exist.
Such ghost beneficiaries aren’t the only kind of issue companies face during a period of unprecedented CSR spending, touching nearly Rs 12,000 crore in 2018-19 (FY19). Frauds related to procurement, construction, and end-use of funds have had companies engaging forensic auditors to keep tabs on how money is spent, revealed conversations with those involved in such investigations. Firms are also increasingly strengthening their own capabilities to better implement their programmes.
"In the beginning in FY15, it took a while for organisations to put in place strategies on how they wanted to spend the CSR money. Over the last year and a half, more and more firms are trying to get some expendi
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