The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India(ICAI), functioning under the aegis of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, organized here today a seminar on Social Audit. A plethora of new ideas in this emerging field were discussed by the Chartered Accountant fraternity. Inaugurating the Seminar Shri Amarjit Chopra, President, ICAI, said that Social Audit is need of the hour and government is looking up to Chartered Accountants to play a vital role in this area. In periods to come, social audit would act as a whistle blower, a role that would be played by the chartered accountants, he said.

Social Audit is an overall value based exercise, which can be conducted right from the grass root level to the level of the Board. A presentation on Genesis and Evolution of Social Audit and a brief on Process and Methodology of Social Audit was also presented during the seminar. A session on Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Audit was taken by experts in this area. Emphasizing on triple bottom line reporting, the experts came up with the idea that corporates should prepare social accounts and use excerpts in the corporate social accountability report.  Social audit as an accountability mechanism: professionals urged to operationalize audits and integrate social accounts into corporate reporting. Social audit is an emergent accountability mechanism to be operationalized by Chartered Accountants across organizational levels; its genesis, evolution, process and methodology were outlined, professionals were urged to act as practical whistleblowers, and corporates were advised to prepare social accounts and include excerpts in the corporate social accountability report to enhance triple bottom line disclosure.