Responsibilty & Co.

Governments depended on tough legislation and regulation to make sure companies don’t damage the environment or exploit labour.

Governments depended on tough legislation and regulation to make sure companies don’t damage the environment or exploit labour. But globalization and the resulting open market economies are bringing the same pressures on companies minus the legal action.

Customers and other stakeholders who can be as harsh have replaced the judge and the regulator as found out in the second on a series on corporate social responsibility.

Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC), the monopoly cigarette maker in country, bagged the prize for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting from Institute of Chartered Accountant of Sri Lanka (ICASL) despite the controversial nature of their business.

The award was to recognise the reporting of their social responsibility practices.

Critics are led by the anti tobacco lobby who say a company that produces products that can cause harm to users can’t be socially responsible.

“I don’t think the tobacco industry or the tobacco company can be socially responsib