ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) Chairman Brig. Muhammad Aslam Khan (Retd) on Saturday said that the new government should also focus on transparency and corporate accountability. The act of being accountable to the stakeholders of an organization, including shareholders, employees, suppliers, customers, the local community has become very important, he said. Speaking at a recently held CRS Forum at Allama Iqbal Open University, he said that Corporate Social Responsibility (CRS) is fast becoming an integral part of the businesses which must be streamlined. He added that the new government should form a committee which should streamline the procedure in which the CRS amount can be efficiently used to improve the lives of the poor people. The said committee can issue guidelines for public companies for corporate accountability which will help change the culture of the corporations and streamline the reporting system, he added. Brig. Muhammad Aslam Khan said that SECP’s efforts and intent for introducing guidelines for the corporate sector is appreciable. He suggested that ownership of strategic policy for planning, execution and reporting of CSR activities shall rest with the Board of Directors so that it gets implemented through the business structure of the company. CSR is a specialised field, therefore, a specialist can play an effective role in the sustainability of the projects, he noted. He quoted a recent research in which Pakistan has a moderate level of CSR and said that an estimate suggests that over seven billion rupees are annually allocated for this purpose by various corporates. Transparency and corporate accountability are essential in carrying out the CSR activities, he underlined. Published in Daily Times, August 19th 2018.