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| Accountability in spending | | As NREGS funding rises, audit must improve |
| Business Standard / New Delhi Feb 07, 2011, 00:23 IST |
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The late Rajiv Gandhi famously, or infamously, once claimed that only 15 per cent of the funds allocated to welfare programmes ever reached the intended beneficiaries. The rest leaked enroute, entering the pockets of an assortment of intermediaries. This is a thought that the Union finance minister must always remember, especially when he sits down to allocate funds for an assortment of subsidies and some of the high-profile spending programme of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. Indeed, given the size of public spending under the UPA, and the steep rise in it in the past five years, there could be more potential for scams in welfare programmes than in crony capitalist deals. In its five years of implementation, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has spent over Rs 1.08 lakh crore on the programme, but without carrying out any financial audit in all these years. This is not only scandalous but also violates the spirit of the NREG Act, which specifically provides for regular audit of accounts at all levels. This is particularly shocking, not just because of the Rajiv Gandhi dictum, but because there have been frequent reports of glaring malpractices and embezzlement of funds in the implementation of the scheme. A limited performance audit conducted by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India on its own in 68 of the 625 districts covered under it had unveiled some of these irregularities. Misappropriation of over Rs 88 crore has been detected. Besides, nearly 4,600 officials at different levels have been proceeded against. Yet, for reasons known only to it, the government did not feel the need for a full-fledged accounts audit in all the districts which could have brought forth a much bigger fraud. In fact, and on the contrary, there have been some conscious attempts to prevent lapses in implementation of the scheme from being exposed. One such attempt, made through amendment of the NREG Act in 2009, involved sidelining of civil society groups from carrying out social audit of the programme.
The pivotal role for social audit was entrusted to Gram Sabhas, taking the sting out of the exercise, as these Sabhas are usually under the strong hold of Sarpanches (Panchayat heads), who are closely involved in the implementation of NREGS. Many of Sarpanches are also party to corruption. A report on the implementation of this scheme in a few selected states, prepared by a former Union rural development secretary, K B Saxena, had minced no words in pointing out that many Sarpanches treated NREGS funds as their own pocket money. Some of them purposely denied employment to Dalits and backward classes to ensure availability of cheaper labour for farm operations. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s advise to state chief secretaries last week to battle corruption is particularly relevant to the case, and his suggestion that a biometric database of all workers be created to rid the scheme of corruption in areas like maintenance of muster rolls and disbursement of wages, would probably be more effective than the Union rural development ministry’s well-intentioned exercise to frame rules under NREG Act for social and financial audit in consultation with CAG. While these interventions are useful, more immediate action to check corruption should be taken under existing anti-corruption laws. Stricter guidelines can be issued to ensure that the works undertaken with NREGS employment are well-conceived and are not left half done, since there is no dearth of funds for this programme.
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