No, your company cannot pay an amount to a charity in lieu of his service fee.
Charitable donations means provision of cash, equipment, company product or relevant third-party product, for exclusive use for charitable or philanthropic purposes and/or to benefit a charitable or philanthropic cause. Charitable donations may only be made on an unrestricted basis and to bona fide charities or other non-profit entities or bodies whose main objects are genuine charitable or philanthropic purposes.
Charitable donations shall not be contingent in any way on past, present or potential future purchase, lease, recommendation, prescription, use, supply or procurement of the company’s products or services. It is important that support of charitable and/or philanthropic programmes and activities by companies is not viewed as a price concession, reward to favoured customers or as an inducement to purchase, lease, recommend, prescribe, use, supply or procure companies’ products or services.
It is not appropriate for a company to support the favourite charity of a HCP in response to a request by that HCP irrespective of the underlying reasons.
