Tuesday, March 5, 2013

AUDIT VILAPIL

Social audit reveals instances of corruption

07th March 2011 05:27 AM




THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A ward member in Vilappil panchayat in Thiruvananthapuram was allegedly gifted a gold bangle by the women engaged in National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in her ward. A male member in one of the adjacent wards received gifts ranging from a gold ring to footwear. All as thanksgiving for work offered to the women under NREGS.
This is just one of the many shocking revelation s which were revealed in a first-of-its-kind social audit done in the state while implementing NREGS. It was carried out by the Social Audit Cell for Local Self-Government in 19 wards in Nooliyode, Vilappil panchayat.
The audit exposed the shortcomings in the implementation of the scheme that was envisaged to ensure at least 100 days of employment for the poor.
The social audit, a subdued affair, was hastily done before the Assembly election Model Code of Conduct came into effect.
The shocking revelation  of violation of rules was with regard to one of the significant requirement in NREGS - that of individual bank accounts for the workers to which wages are deposited.
Instead of bank accounts, the workers here had post office accounts which revealed transactions that did not match the work-roll of the labourers.
“In many cases it was found that the Post Masters and mates (who are Kudumbashree members) had dubious links by which the account of the worker was used to transact money without the knowledge of the worker,” said Bushra Beegum, a social audit team member, in Vilappil panchayat.
The social audit, however, shows that corruption is not limited to any one section engaged in NREGS.
It exposed cases in which various persons from project engineers to ward members to mates were found guilty of tampering with the accounts.
In one instance, a watershed project which required an amount less than Rs 5,000 was found prepared for Rs 5 lakh by  project engineer.
In another case, 600 workers were employed for clearing a forest area which could have been done by 20 people.
“We have found certain irregularities. But the social audit was not to punish any official or worker or mate, it was an effort to bring in a monitoring system for the scheme. It is a move to make grama sabhas accountable to the implementation of NREGS as recommended in the Act. We are training village-level social auditors with the objective of creating a village-level audit network which would bring transparency to its implementation,’’ said an official with the State Social Audit Cell for LSG.
However, S Shobhanakumari, president, Vilappil grama panchayat, said all was well with the implementation of the scheme in the panchayat.
“Some minor discrepancies were found, but it is not restricted to the mates alone or the officials alone. The panchayat carried out many watershed projects under NREGS which was successful," she said.
But it was learnt that half the projects for which money was approved under NREGS was not carried out in the panchayat.

No comments:

Post a Comment