Corporate social responsibility in the large scale gold mining industry in Ghana

There has been large scale gold mining in Ghana for at least the last one hundred years. The mining companies with the passage of time have moved from being concerned only with profit making to 'doing well by doing good'. For some years now the gold mining companies have made some contributions to the communities in which they work. This study focused on the corporate social responsibility activities of these companies with respect to the governance structure put in place and the funds allocated for such activities. The study found that the Ghana Chamber of Mines in reporting the expenditure its members made on corporate social responsibility activities added cost elements which do not qualify to be referred to as corporate social responsibility. The funds set aside for social corporate responsibility were very small and could not bring about a meaningful change in the communities. Also, the companies operated various governance modules with different levels of community participation. The study recommends among others that the Ghana Chamber of Mines establishes a CSR Index to encourage its members to do more in that area. There is also the need for more transparency in the accounting of CSR expenditures. The companies are also to allocate more funds for social corporate responsibility.