RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Question No - 2937
:
Answered Date : 15-03-2010
Subject : SOCIAL AUDIT UNDER MGNREGS

 

Will the Minister of RURAL DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:-


(a) whether there is any provision of social audit under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS); 

(b) if so, the number of fraud cases brought to the light through social audit in the country including Rajasthan during each of the last three years and the current year, State-wise; and 

(c) the number of Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) engaged in social audit alongwith the number of such NGOs barred from social audit, State-wise?
ANSWER

MINISTER OF THE STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT (SHRI PRADEEP JAIN `ADITYA`) 

(a): Yes, Sir. The Section 17 (2) of the Mahatma Gandhi NREG Act provides that Gram Sabha shall conduct regular Social Audits of all the projects taken up within the Gram Panchayat. 

(b): As per reports available, 6 cases of fraud in Andhra Pradesh, 4 in Chhattisgarh and 2 each in Haryana and Jharkhand have been reported during social audit conducted in 2008-09. No such case has been reported from Rajasthan. 

(c): As provided in Section 17(2) of the Act, social audit is to be conducted by the Gram Sabha. Vide Notification dated 31.12.2008, amendments have been made by the Government in 13 of Schedule I of the Act providing for procedure for conduct of Social Audit. This procedure provides that the Social Audit shall be open to public participation. Any outside individual person apart from the Gram Sabha shall be allowed to attend the Social Audit as observers without intervening the proceedings of the Social Audit. The Ministry does not engage any NGOs for conducting Social Audit.