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Civil society opposes Sarpanch auditing own work under NREGA by Devika Banerji

Civil society groups have opposed a government proposal to rid its flagship rural jobs guarantee programme of malpractices, saying the plan is "hazy and lacks clear direction".

The opposition to the proposal, which seeks social and financial audits of schemes under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), comes at a time when the government is facing the heat of a campaign led by social activist Anna Hazare over the contours of the Lokpal.

The government has proposed to create a Lokpal, or ombusman, to tackle endemic corruption but there have been differences between it and the civil society groups over how powerful the institution should be. Similar differences have now emerged over the proposed institutional arrangement to carry out audits of the government's biggest welfare scheme, which has a budget of over .`40,000 core.

"There are differences over how effective such a structure will be," a senior official in the ministry of rural development told ET. "We are in discussion with various stakeholders on the issue."

Civil society groups are particularly against the arrangement suggested for social audit of the scheme. A social audit measures the performance of a scheme in terms of its social, environmental and community goals.

The government has proposed to set up a directorate of audit in each state to facilitate and oversee financial and social audit of the projects under the scheme. These institutions will also coordinate between the states and the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India. It has proposed that at the village level, social audits will be carried out by gram sabhas, or village councils, headed by sarpanches, or village heads.

Civil society groups say this idea promotes conflict of interest.

"It makes no sense that sarpanches should judge their own performance in a social audit," said Sowmya Kidambi, an activist with Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, a grassroots organization. "It (the proposal) was very hazy and lacked clear direction." Kidambi's organization had been involved with social audits in Andhra Pradesh.

Independent observers point to the criticism that social audits carried out by sarpanches in Rajasthan had drawn last year.

They say the sarpanches failed to highlight several malpractices in the rural job guarantee scheme, which were exposed later.

In many instances, gram sabha members had misappropriated the funds allocated for the scheme by fudging muster rolls with fake names of workers or number of workdays. Civil society groups have also denounced an amendment to Section 13 of the Act, which allows outside individuals and organisations to attend a social audit, but forbids them from intervening in the gram sabhadriven exercise.

Civil society groups have instead proposed their own audit structure, under which a separate autonomous body will carry out social and financial audits instead of the gram sabhas. This body will comprise government officials, grassroot workers and other stakeholders. A draft of this proposal has been presented to the CAG.

Social audits cannot be carried out by non-government sources alone, Kidambi said. The CAG can do the initial handholding of the grassroots organizations, she added. States, however, are feeling the brunt of the dispute between the Centre and the civil society groups. Already facing problems in transfer of MGNREGA funds from the Centre, the states fear more administrative hurdles if social audits are made mandatory.

"We are not opposed to having social audits, but given the human resource constraints in most administrative divisions in states and lack of technological expertise, chances are it will only create more hindrances," said an official in the rural development ministry of a northeastern state.