RDD instead of independent unit conducting social audit
*CAG observations not being taken seriously
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, June 26: The administration of Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory is openly violating vital aspect of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) Operational Guidelines by getting the social audit conducted through the Department of Rural Development instead of an independent unit.
This is notwithstanding the fact that the Comptroller and Auditor General of India while conducting the performance audit at the country level has laid stress on strict adherence to the guidelines by each and every State and Union Territory so as to check mal-practices, deter corruption and improve implementation of MGNREGA.
As per the Operational Guidelines of MGNREGA issued by the Union Government, each State and Union Territory is required to set up a Social Audit Unit which shall be independent from the department that is implementing the scheme.
The guidelines state: “The Social Audit Unit must not be a Cell/Directorate/Unit within the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj of the State/UT. Moreover, Director of the Social Audit Unit should not be a Government officer involved in the implementation of MGNREGA in the State/UT and it should have independent staff structure comprising State Resource Persons and thematic experts”.
Moreover, the independent Social Audit Unit has been entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that an audit is conducted in every Gram Panchayat twice a year as per the Audit of Scheme Rules, 2011 in order to promote transparency and accountability in the implementation of the scheme and inform and educate the people about their rights and entitlement under the law.
As per Union Ministry of Rural Development order dated April 2013, one per cent of total annual expenditure under MGNREGA in any State/UT is to be used for meeting the cost of establishment of a Social Audit Unit and conducting social audit of the works.
However, in Jammu and Kashmir this vital aspect of MGNREGA Operational Guidelines is being openly violated by assigning the task of social audit to the officers of the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, official sources told EXCELSIOR, adding “neither a calendar at the beginning of the year which shall in advance lay out the sequence in which social audits will be conducted across all Gram Panchayats is drawn nor required number of audits are conducted”.
This is mainly because no independent Social Audit Unit has been established in this Union Territory till date although more than 12 years have lapsed since the extension of MGNREGA to all the districts of Jammu and Kashmir.
“The failure of the Government to establish independent Social Audit Unit is notwithstanding the fact that Comptroller and Auditor General of India, in its MGNREGA performance audit, has laid thrust on strict adherence to this vital aspect of the Operational Guidelines”, sources said, adding “even Union Ministry of Rural Development has a number of times dashed formal communications to the J&K administration asking for creation of Social Audit Unit as early as possible”.
An officer of the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, on the condition of anonymity, said that efforts were made to appoint Director Social Audit Unit by inviting applications but none of the applicants could fulfil the eligibility criteria.
“Now, the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj is planning to issue advertisement at the national level so that suitable applicant could be appointed as Director of Social Audit Unit”, he further said. However, the officer failed to give any plausible reason for inaction on this vital aspect ever since the start of MGNREGA implementation in Jammu and Kashmir in 2008.
Due to this, the objectives of strengthening the scheme by deterring corruption and improving implementation; democratize decision making by providing a platform for implementation authorities to be accountable to beneficiaries; controlling leakages in implementation of MGNREGA; detecting malfunctioning in the implementation in the presence of people and promoting corrective action; strengthening local governance and providing a platform for systematic feedback to improve the programme could not be achieved till date.
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