Orissa to frame guidelines for social audit in NREGS

Close on the heels of signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the public sector State Bank of India (SBI) for implementing electronic benefit transfer (EBT) mechanism for beneficiaries under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA), the Orissa government is in the process of framing guidelines for ‘social audit’ in works taken up under NREGS.

While states like Rajasthan have already framed guidelines for conduct of social audit to bring in transparency to the system, Orissa was lagging behind in this respect. The recent visit of the Panchayatiraj minister along with senior officials of the department to Rajasthan has paved the way for taking up such an exercise, sources said.

The draft guideline being framed for the purposes prescribes for social audit at the Gram Panchayat level through Gram Sabha. Social Audit Committees (SACs) are proposed to be constituted at the GP level for social audit. It will be an unique initiative by the state government to weed out corruption by involving people, voluntary organisations and social activists to monitor NREGS. “Irregularities in job cards and non-payment of compensation to families can be addressed effectively once the guideline comes into force”, an official associated with the process said.

According to the proposed guidelines, holding of social audit will be mandatory twice in a fiscal, with the first one to be held in April and the second one in October. The new guideline will be effective from 1 April 2010, sources added. It may be noted, social audit has been made mandatory for all works taken up under the scheme as per the section (17) of NREGA.