Title: Social Audit Immersion Clinic
1Social Audit Immersion Clinic
- Presentation made at World Bank, Washington DC
- By
- K.Raju
- Prl secy to Govt, RD dept
- Andhra Pradesh
- 23rd March 2009
2The Outline of the Session
- The objectives and methodology
- What is social auditing?
- An overview of social Auditing of NREGS in AP
- Step by step process details
- Institutionalizing and taking it to scale and the
lessons
3The Objectives and methodolgy
- The objectives
- To understand social audit from the perspective
of a practitioner - To develop broad framework for social auditing of
other poverty reduction programs
4The Objectives and methodolgy
- The Methodology
- Presentation on Social auditing of NREGS in AP
- Participants reflect on the AP case and
articulate how they would facilitate social
auditing for their program - Challenges and how to address them
5What is Social Audit?
- Community is facilitated to
- Internalise their rights and entitlements
- Access relevant official records
- Compare with the actual position on the ground
6What is Social Audit?
- Community is facilitated to
- Analyse deviations/shortfalls if any
- Identify officials responsible
- Question the officials in a public forum
- Secure commitment from officials for corrective
measures - Follow up action monitored
7An overview of Social Auditing of NREGS in AP
- Started as pilot in a few villages 3 years back
- The ground covered in 3 years
- Social auditing in all villages in the state
- Institutional arrangements and human resource put
in place - Statutory Rules notified
8NREGA processes
- Job card
- Demand for work
- Identification of works
- Worksite management
- Payment of wages and material costs
9Social Auditing of NREGS in AP
- Districts covered 22
- Habitations covered 50,000
- Expenditure Audited Rs 2500 Cr
- Village Social Auditors trained 50,000
- Peoples reps who attended 30,000
10Social Auditing of NREGS in AP
- Wage seekers reached 25 lakhs
- Applications filed under RTI 1000
- Documents scrutinized 4 lakhs
- No. Of MLAs who have About 100
- attended SAs
- Amount Recovered Rs 2.50 cr
11How it happened in AP?
- Learning from the pilot Social Audits in the
state - Wide range of steps taken to institutionalise
Social Auditing and to take it to scale - This presentation is essentially about how it is
done
12Social Auditing of NREGS process details
13NREGA, 2005- The Objectives
- Livelihood security to the households in rural
areas - 100 days of guaranteed wage employment to a
family on demand as a Right
14Rights and entitlements
- Minimum wages on weekly or FN basis
- Equal wages for men and women
- Worksite facilities
- Medical expenses for injured/ex-gratia for
deceased - Unemployment allowance if work is not allotted
15NREGA processes
- Job card
- Demand for work
- Identification of works
- Worksite management
- Payment of wages and material costs
16Social Auditing of NREGS in Mandal
- Starts with filing of application with Mandal
Development officer under RTI Act, for a set of
NREGS documents - Documents secured within 7 days
17Documents accessed
- List of job card holders
- List of works sanctioned
- Estimates of each work
- Muster rolls
- Pay orders
- Material payment vouchers
18Analysing the documents
- About 40 literate labour selected as village
social auditors (VSAs) - VSAs trained for 3 days on the process
- VSAs formed into 5 groups
- Each groups assisted to analyse the records of 4
Gram pancayats
19Community is assisted to undertake social
auditing
- Each group of VSAs spends 3 days in each
Grampanchayat - Verification with each wage seeker
- Focused group discussions
- Inspection of works
- Recording of variations if any
20Gram Sabha convened to discuss the findings
- Findings discussed
- Corrective measures if any discussed and
commitment from implementation agency taken
21Public hearing convened at the Mandal Hqrts
- Status of the Scheme presented
- The Mandal Social Audit team read out, strengths,
weaknesses and important deviations - Evidence adduced
22Public hearing convened at the Mandal Hqrts
- The officials respond
- Recovery of money misappropriated
- Commitment on the corrective measures secured
23How Social Auditing of NREGS is institutionalized
and taken to scale
24Policy support
- Policy support on the access to information
- To provide information in a way understandable
people - To delivery copies of documents if asked in 7
days time - To host Social Audit reports in web, in public
domain - Commit budget exclusively for social auditing
25Policy support
- Statutory Rules on the conduct of social audit
notified - Detailed Govt orders issued
26Institutional support
- An independent Unit set up at state level
- 44 State Resource persons and 440 District
Resource persons comprising of activists from
Civil Society Organisations inducted - Training modules developed
- Digitisation of social audits arranged
- Web site to host Social audit reports
27Impact and learning from AP experience
- Deepening of peoples awareness on their rights
- Valuable input to improve Scheme design
- Deepening of social accountability
- Improvement in the grassroots governance
28Impact and learning from AP experience
- Social accountability in action-acts as great
deterrent - Prompt action on the findings is necessary to
harness the power of the social auditing - Social auditing is not about corruption or
catching the corrupt. It is a process of opening
of public dialogue in the society.
29THANK YOU