‘Use of CSR funds for govt schools will be transparent’

CHENNAI: The CSR funds from companies and individuals to improve government schools in Tamil Nadu will be transparent as donors can track the progress on the usage of their funds through their mobile.

The School Education Department has formed the Namma School-Namma Ooru Palli Foundation where individuals, corporates, businesses, Not-for-Profit Organisations (NPOs), and foundations join hands in envisioning a better learning ecosystem for government school children across the State.

In a first-of-its-kind initiative, a ‘Namma School Portal’ with a virtual pavilion was developed to solicit support for the institutions. The initiative will facilitate a live streaming page for each school, linked to YouTube plug-and-play. One can create video frames and stream them on YouTube live for schools for their pavilions, activities, and celebrations.

A senior official from the School Education Department pointed out that after donating the money through a website, usually donors do not get information about the utilisation of their funds. “Therefore, we do not get more funds from them,” he said.

The official said big corporates including Ashok Leyland, Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, Indian Oil Corporation, Titan, L&T, Chennai Petroleum Corporation, Saint Gobain, and Kone were continuously supporting the State government for the improvement of state-run schools.

Transparency will make sure more corporates join the State to strengthen the government school infrastructure.

The official said that therefore, it has been decided to use the latest technology to provide the donors with effective utilisation at all levels. “Accordingly, all donors who make a donation through the foundation will be provided the payment gateway with a dashboard wherein they can track the progress on the usage of their funds,” he said.

Stating that every transaction is mapped to a unique project ID created by the software so that funds can be monitored and tracked at all levels, he said “All payments to the implementing agencies will be paid in stages using a single nodal account”.

Pointing out that on completion of every stage, the school management committee responsible for the project will upload the photos of the completed project along with the bills and vouchers, he said at the end of every completed stage an SMS and an email triggers are also sent to the donors.

He said random audits and field-level inspections will be carried out by various officials at the block, district, and state levels. “On completion of a CSR-funded project, the Completion Certificate and the Utilisation Certificate will be uploaded on the portal and can be accessed by the donor using their dashboard”.