Sustainable development disclosure auditing: Celebratory after-parties or more work to be done?

The title of this article may be anxiety provoking. Certainly, I am not trying to create concerns here but to offer constructive suggestions for the betterment of the dissemination of CSR in society. After quite some efforts of promotion through the media, through education at various institutions, and even via government slogans, many people are quite aware that “corporations” have to take up this thing called “CSR” or “corporate social responsibility”. This is especially the case for Macau; in a city which relies mostly on tourism and entertainment income, large gaming businesses are often regarded as the ones to take the lead in CSR.

In fact, the gaming tax in Macau is around 35%-40% of gross income, which represents the highest rate in the world to be charged on such income. It can still be heard many times and repeatedly from within the community that gaming enterprises should take up more CSR. However, is another increase in the tax rate a cure for such social issues ranging from exogeneous factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic to endogenous factors like the indigenous characteristics of the local industry and economy? In my personal opinion, the answer is surely “no”. Why am I making this bold statement while many people may be complaining about the “treacherous” or even “enslaving” treatment by the capitalists (e.g., unpaid leave in casinos) of the laborers? The answer is pristinely clear. It is a matter of information disclosure and even more importantly, information auditing.

It is not uncommon to see how corporations such as the larger gaming operators in Macau devote themselves feverishly to reporting their CSR activities (good deeds). The same can be said of public utilities companies or other private enterprises. The main point is that in places where enterprises have to follow stock market listing requirements, they are obliged to disclose their CSR activities in the form of annual reports, CSR reports, sustainability reports, or whatever you call them. Now the point is that once a CSR report has been published, the media, the public or academics will cite or even analyze the contents in those reports. Many enterprises take their CSR reports as a nice opportunity to showcase their CSR engagement, philanthropy and other social concerns in such a way that sometimes we call this “window-dressing”.

Source: https://www.macaubusiness.com/opinion-sustainable-development-disclosure-auditing-celebratory-after-parties-or-more-work-to-be-done/