ICSI SAS – 14 Social Audit Standard on facilitating access to land and property assets for disadvantaged communities
Applicability and Scope
This Social Audit Standard (‘the Standard’) is applicable to the Social Auditor as defined under sub-Regulation (f) of Regulation 292A of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2018 conducting the Social Audit of the Social Enterprise as defined under sub-Regulation (h) of Regulation 292A of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2018.. This Standard deals with procedures, responsibilities and duties of the Auditor with respect to the Social Audit being conducted by him/ her of the Social Enterprises engaged in the activities prescribed under sub-regulation 2(a)(xiv) of Regulation 292E of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2018.
Objective
ICSI Social Audit Standard – 14 (ICSI SAS-14) aims to aid the Social Auditors with necessary instructions or guidelines for the effective Social Audit of Social Enterprises engaged in the field of “facilitating access to land and property assets for disadvantaged communities”. Social Auditor shall follow the minimum criteria as specified in this proposed Social Audit standard issued by the ICSI.
Effective Date
This Social Audit Standard will be in force with effect from –/–/20–.
Social Audit Process and Documentation
Social Auditor shall conduct the Social Audit in accordance with the procedures/ mandates established and notified by the ICSI from time to time. Social Auditors shall perform their functions that provide sufficient and adequate evidence to support Social Audit. Social Auditor can acquire evidence for the effectiveness of Social Audit through inspection, observation, inquiry, consultation, interview, questionnaire, analytical
procedures and/or other research techniques or any other acceptable methods as he/she deems fit. The procedures to be followed are as under:
I. Define Social Audit objectives and planning Social Audit;
II. Intimation to the Management of the Social Enterprise about the Audit Plan;
III. Identification of Stakeholders and consultation;
IV. Visit to/inspection of the area where project/activity was implemented;
V. Collection of data, Analysis and assessment;
VI. Reporting.
I. Define Social Audit objectives and planning Social Audit
The Social Auditor shall define the object and scope of the Social Audit prior to conducting Social Audit. It is always better to have a proper plan prior to Social Audit and it includes nature, timing and extent of the procedures and standards to be followed while conducting Social Audit. The Social Auditor should also analyse the report, recommendations of the previous Social Audit, if any, and review the corrective actions taken by the Social Enterprise with respect to the recommendations suggested in the previous Social Audit Report. This is the first stage of Social Audit process.
II. Intimation to the Management of the Social Enterprise about the Audit Plan
It is expected that the Social Auditor should intimate the audit plan to the Management of the Social Enterprise so that they can have the necessary documents and materials ready and available for the Auditor.
III. Identification of Stakeholders and Consultation
The key stakeholders who can be involved in the Social Audit process include project beneficiaries, officials of the local bodies, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), training providers, NGOs and their employees, media, etc. The consultation must be done with the stakeholders to extract accurate and needed information
IV. Visit to / inspection of the area where project / activity was implemented
The Social Auditor must make it a point to visit / inspect the location and this will also give him / her better opportunities both for collection of data and consultation with the stakeholders.
V. Collection of data, analysis and assessment.
This activity involves identifying key issues that need to be cross checked in the Social Audit as well as how information and data pertaining to the activity undertaken by the Social Enterprise will be collected. Moreover, in Social Audit process, two types of data are crucial. Primary data collected from stakeholders and community members, followed by Secondary data collected from various other sources. Gathering secondary information is very important in the process of Social Audit. Secondary data are inevitable for making Social Audit Reports. Information required for preparing Social Audit Reports may not be available in single point but may be in different records in different forms.
Social Auditor shall collect the relevant information through any of the following methods:
- Documents and records
- Enrolment data for training programmes
- Contracts / Agreements entered
- Progress Report
- Various related govt schemes
- Questionnaires and surveys
- Interviews
- Observations
- Published data from authorized sources
Evaluation should be based on certain criteria and suggestive list of such criteria is provided hereinafter. However, the list is inclusive and not exhaustive and the Social Auditor must exercise his own discretion and judgement on case to case basis. Also, the feedback from stakeholders should be considered while preparing the Social Audit Report.
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Sl. No. |
Particulars |
| A. Facilitating access to land and property assets for disadvantaged communities | |
| 1 | Awareness programmes conducted for making women aware of their legal rights to own land, property and assets and improve their bargaining power within the family and in society generally. |
| 2 | Awareness programmes conducted on community basis to make
disadvantaged communities aware of their rights about ownership and enjoyment of land and other natural resources. |
| 3 | Initiatives taken for ensuring equal distribution of income or reduce income inequality. |
| 4 | Initiatives for eradicating ill-defined property rights or unfair enforcement of rights against disadvantaged communities relating to agricultural land and other natural resources. |
| 5 | Initiatives taken for controlling/minimising high concentration of land
ownership and asymmetrical tenancy arrangements. |
| 6 | Free Legal assistance/aid given for disadvantaged communities pertaining to property related litigations. |
| 7 | Measures taken for landless tenants who cultivate others land. |
| 8 | Measures taken for landless labourers who depend on casual or long-term employment in the farm or nonfarm sectors. |
| 9 | Initiatives taken to facilitate public sector support for agricultural research and making available the resulting benefits to small farmers. |
| 10 | Initiatives taken for arranging access to Government benefit schemes, micro finance, farm loans, agro insurance, etc. |
| 11 | Legal literacy programmes conduced to help disadvantaged communities to understand their statutory rights to land. |
| 12 | Initiatives taken to provide the relevant authorities to repeal and amend customary, traditional or religious property regulations and regimes that discriminate against disadvantaged community’s property rights. |
| 13 | Promote disadvantaged community’s participation and leadership in global, national and local institutions, in governance mechanisms in rural areas and in bodies concerned with the ownership and use of land in order to increase disadvantaged community’s autonomy, voice, agency and decision-making power. |
| 14 | Promote joint land titling in order to increase the registration of disadvantaged community’s land rights. |
VI. Reporting
The Social Audit Report shall include information about the objective set out at the beginning of the Social Audit, methodologies adopted, observations, findings and recommendations if any. The Social Auditor shall also identify the challenges faced in implementation of the projects / activities and suggest areas for improvement based on observation, interview and feedback received from stakeholders. The Social Auditor shall also list out the limitations of the audit process which might include inability to identify all stakeholders, non-availability of proper response from stakeholders, and so on and point out the extent to which such limitations impact the Audit Report. The Report of Social Audit shall be as per the format notified by the ICSI from time to time.
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