Punjab Govt plans external audit of Panchayat spending

Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today said that the funds spent by 13,047 panchayats in the state would be examined by external auditors to bring in more transparency.
"There will be a third party external audit of money spent on various development works in villages," he said.
"To bring in more transparency and accountability in Rural Development Department, it has been decided that Punjab would be divided in five zones and each zone would have an external auditor," he said.
The local funds audit department has been asked to finalise the request for proposal (RFP) to shortlist audit companies.

Badal said there would be performance audit of works executed by panchayats every six months.
"The audit company will also engage civil engineers to verify the quality of work executed by panchayats," Badal said.
Meanwhile, Badal said the state government had already finalised a plan to revamp infrastructure of all villages in three phases, for which over Rs 24,000 crore had been set aside.
The SAD leader also asked the Local Bodies Department to go for third party audit as the government is planning to spend more than Rs 40,000 crore for upgrading civic infrastructure of 147 towns of the state.