The Shillong Times: Shillong: Saturday, July 22, 2017.
Social audits
refer to a legally mandated process where potential and existing beneficiaries
evaluate the implementation of a programme by comparing official records with
ground realities. In simple mathematics, RTI plus Public Hearing is equal to
Social Audit. Social audit is based on the principle that democratic local
governance should be carried out, as far as possible with the consent and
understanding of all concerned. It creates an impact upon governance. It values
the voice of stakeholders, including marginalized/poor groups whose voices are
rarely heard. Social auditing is taken up for the purpose of enhancing local
governance, particularly for strengthening accountability and transparency in
local bodies. These audits were first made statutory in a 2005 Rural Employment
Act.
One of the
key ideas of Social Audit is that people should be equipped to carry out audits
themselves. The Rajasthan based Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) played an
important role in the formulation and passage of the RTI and MNREGA acts and
was the first in the country to pioneer social audits. It was one of the basic
mechanisms used to establish why the Right to Information was needed. Without
information, there`s seems to be no way to start questioning. They serve as an
important tool to detect corruption and influence redress.
Social audit
is no longer a choice. Along with other transparency and accountability
platforms, it is a legal, moral, and democratic necessity. The government can
decide to use these interventions and harness peoples’ energies in facing the
vast challenge of implementation and monitoring.
The
objectives of Social Audit includes: Prioritization of developmental activities
as per requirements, Proper utilization of funds, Conformity of the
developmental activity with the stated goals, Quality of service etc. The
benefits includes: Involvement of people in developmental activities to ensure
that money is spent where is it actually needed, Reduction of wastages,
Reduction in corruption, Awareness among people, Promotes integrity and a sense
of community among people, Improves the standard of governance and many others.
Since in
every budget, be it the Union Budget or State Budget, more than 50% of the
budget goes towards welfare schemes, therefore it’s important to track how, and
how much money is diverted away from intended recipients. Social audits serve
as a better monitoring tool for these schemes.
In some
states like Telangana the digitally monitored scheme MGNREGA is physically
audited through a system of Social Audit and the images of worksites are
captured and uploaded online. MNREGA is world class as every rupee is tracked,
but still manipulation is possible. So to say that physical verification is
unnecessary because everything is digitally captured is to allow ourselves to
fall into a trap. In Meghalaya too, the social audit carried out so far under
MNREGA has unearthed several anomalies and irregularities and several FIRs have
also been filed against the Rangbah Shnong for failing to provide an account of
the implementation of the right to work scheme.
There have
been instances where the field personnel have been implicated or removed based
on the findings of the social audits. This is indicative of the fact that
Social Audit is working and is a tool to further reinforce transparency and
accountability in governance.
Social Audit
is a must to bring to light lapses, misdeeds and misappropriations in various
fields like Education, Healthcare, Employment, treatment of women etc. In
Education sector, there have been many allegations on the misuse of the mid-day
meal scheme. In Healthcare, the poor patients are subjected to maltreatment and
exploitation with funds disbursed for supply to them through medicines, diet
etc. Under MNREG Scheme, the number of people actually working is much less
than that shown for claiming the wages payable and the work done is poor in
quality and quantity. In several departments/agencies/Authority etc., be it the
Meghalaya Basin Development Authority, PWD, Water Resource Dept etc. public
money intended for a particular purpose (say blacktopping of a stretch of rural
road) is diverted towards purchasing luxury vehicles for officers even though
the department`s demand for grants submitted to the Assembly Secretariat to
finalize the appropriation bills never mentioned such requirements.
Meghalaya
being a state not much penetrated by Information Technology, the talks of
Digital or e-governance is still a possible distant reality. Many schemes,
programs or projects implemented so far have reached the beneficiaries either
partially or disproportionately as no audit mechanism is available as of now
except for the centrally sponsored scheme-
MNREGA due to a statutory provision under section 23 and section 17 of the Act. With the
enactment of the Meghalaya Community Participation and Public Service Audit
Act, 2017 let`s hope that there will be better implementation of government
schemes and empowerment for the citizens of the state to participate in the
developmental exercise by bringing in an element of transparency and
accountability in governance.
The act
mandates the inclusion of at least two women in the Social Audit committees
(section 11 (3)(iv)) which is very much required in a land, where traditionally
only men have been running the show. The objective of this act is to review
delivery of public services and implementation of government schemes,
programmes and projects through a participatory social audit by the government
as well as the stakeholders. One of the objectives of the act is to educate the
citizens and to make them aware of their rights and entitlement thought the
process of social audit. It will enhance citizen`s ownership in the development
initiatives taken up by the Government in the true spirit of participatory
democracy. Social audit process will be a platform for airing of public
grievances and ensure a time-bound redress of the same. Under the Act, the
government is mandated to constitute a State Social Audit Council. The
programmes, schemes and projects implemented by different government
departments, agencies or organizations that will be subject to social audit
include Education (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Midday Meal), various healthcare
services, services provided by MeECL, Climate Change activities and services
provided by the PHE department among others.
However, not
all is rosy and hurdle free. Experiences indicate that institutionalization on
the ground has been inadequate, and has faced great resistance from the
establishment. The lack of adequate administrative and political will in
institutionalizing social audit to deter corruption has meant that social
audits in many parts of the country are not independent from the influence of
implementing agencies. Take the case of the Meghalaya Community Participation
and Public Service Audit Act, 2017, the act provides for the appointment of
members to the State Social Audit Council to be made by the government. As long
as the appointment procedure is not neutral and independent, the function of
the Council is bound or prone to be influenced by the implementing agency.
Effective audit process will highly depend on the integrity, probity and
honesty of the District Social Audit Coordinator and the cooperation of the
Social Audit Facilitator.
Awareness on
the importance of social audit by the village/locality social audit committees
will be crucial and the active participation of the masses will be significant
which we have to wait and watch. So far there is no news of the above
committees having been formed. No NGO has pushed the Government to craft out
the rules following the passage of the Act so that it becomes effective at the
earliest. Without public pressure the Act will remain another paper tiger.
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