No social audit of the rural job guarantee scheme, MGNREGA, was conducted in close to 50 per cent of the gram panchayats in 25 States during 2014-15, a CAG report has pointed out.
“Of the 2,34,594 gram panchayats to be covered for social audit in 25 States during 2014-15, only 1,20,841 (51 per cent) were covered,” says a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on social audit rules of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), tabled in Parliament on Friday.
The report also found that 15 States had not completed the establishment of social audit units in 2014-15, of which seven States had not even set up these units even after four years of promulgation of rules under the Act.
Urging the Ministry of Rural Development to fix a time frame for state governments to set up social audit units and ensure availability of resource persons, the report pointed out the shortfall of 22-57 per cent even in the 14 States where these units had been established.
“Social audit units were not set up in Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Kerala and Uttarakhand,” it said.
The CAG report also noted that of the Rs 23.50 crore released by the Rural Development Ministry to the National Institute of Rural Development for capacity building of social audit staff, Rs 20.30 crore was used for Intensive Participatory Planning and Rs 1.50 crore for the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana instead.
“The reasons for non-utilisation of fund for training of social audit staff were not found on record,” it said, adding that this “diluted its importance.”
The objective of social audits of the MGNREGA was not just to find out if the funds were spent properly but also whether it had made a difference to people’s lives, the report said, urging the Ministry to conduct follow-up action at all levels, as per provision of the rules.