World Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 2. No. 4. July 2012. Pp. 195 – 207 Improving CSR Reporting in Mauritius – Accountants’ perspectives Dineshwar Ramdhony* and Vanisha Oogarah-Hanuman** The study investigates the motivations for CSR reporting and proposes solutions to enhance comparability of CSR disclosures. A survey of 300 randomly selected qualified accountants was carried out using a questionnaire which was constructed based on various sources of literature. Results show that the main reason for reporting CSR is reputation management followed by the need to comply with the Code of Corporate Governance (Code). Other valid reasons to report CSR include; attracting investors, to improve financial performance, to counteract negative media attention and to provide evidence of how funds allocated to CSR have been used. Respondents deplore the limited guidelines and the absence of sanctions for not reporting CSR as per the Code. Recommendations to improve CSR reporting include monitoring CSR disclosures in the annual report so that it fulfils its primary purpose of disseminating more information to various stakeholders and monitoring any abuse of the ‘comply or explain’ provision and getting a pool of experts to draft CSR reporting guidelines for the country. Keywords: CSR, Mauritius, GRI Field of Research: Accounting and Management. 1. Introduction Companies have been traditionally viewed as economic entities run to enhance value for their shareholders. However, there has been a drastic shift with regards to the role of businesses. In today’s competitive world, along the primary objective of increasing shareholders’ wealth, companies are also accountable to the society at large (Waddock, 2004). The discharge of the duty towards the society is called Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The term CSR has no unique definition but all of them converge towards the idea that businesses have a broader responsibility towards the society and the environment, in addition to their legal obligations. CSR reporting is the way companies demonstrate how they have discharged their duty towards the society. Various terms are used to describe reporting in this area: CSR reporting, sustainability reporting and triple bottom line reporting. Over the last 20 years users of accounting information have demanded information on the impact of a firm’s activities on society in addition to information relating to economic activities (Samy, Halabi, Khan, 2009). Financial statements portray a limited picture of the affairs of a company since they can only capture events which have a *Dineshwar Ramdhony, Lecturer, Faculty of Law and Management, University of Mauritius, Reduit. d.ramdhony@uom.ac.mu **Vanisha Oogarah-Hanuman, Lecturer, Faculty of Law and Management, University of Mauritius, Reduit. v.hanuman@uom.ac.mu