\'Red-tapism\' hinders nat\'l CSR guideline formation

No tangible progress has yet been made in formulating a national guideline on corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in the country, mainly due to bureaucratic tangles, officials said.
The Ministry of Planning (MoP) took the initiative to formulate the uniform guideline in 2014.
Main objectives of the guideline are to bring the CSR spending and other related activities under policy binding, and to assess how much the companies can contribute to the country's health, education, environment, security and children welfare sectors for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), they said.
The government formed a high-powered committee to prepare the CSR guideline, which first sat in a meeting on February 24 this year.  
The CSR Centre Bangladesh in cooperation with MoP is formulating a draft on National CSR Guideline for Bangladesh.
Three thematic groups will be formed comprising the representatives from different ministries, divisions and private corporate firms. These social, environmental and economic groups will prepare separate reports on their respective fields by this month.
Besides, necessary opinions will be taken from the stakeholders concerned through organising meetings and workshops after formatting the draft guideline.   
If the guideline gets a final shape, CSR process and activities will be more transparent, said a high official of a private commercial bank (PCB).
The CSR guideline can contribute to creating positive branding for the country, and corporate firms can enhance standards as well as expand global market of exportable items, said experts.
They, however, said the focus is on good governance, climate change and environment, human rights and labour standards.
CSR practice in Bangladesh is still on ad-hoc basis and not strategic. The idea of CSR is not new, but its whole notion and putting it in to a framework is still new.
The real concept of CSR is it should be aligned with the companies' core business strategy and be a part of their business, they opined.
Total amount of CSR expenditure by the banks and non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) in the fiscal year (FY) 2015 was over Tk 54.00 billion, according the Bangladesh Bank data. NBFIs reported direct CSR expenditure of Tk 44.2 million in the FY.
Education, health, and humanitarian and disaster relief contributed to 34.5 per cent, 21.8 per cent and 23.5 per cent respectively of the banks' total CSR contributions.
The NBFIs concentrated more on cultural welfare (24.8 per cent) besides humanitarian and disaster relief (22.7 per cent) and other sectors (27.7 per cent).
Education, health and environment got less priority, as they spent 11.6 per cent, 7.4 per cent and 5.8 per cent on these sectors in FY 15.
The NBFIs also concentrated less on infrastructural development in underprivileged areas and income-generating activities for the poor.
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