B. RajsekharDirector, Society for Social Audit,

Accountability and Transparency (SSAAT) Government of Andhra Pradesh

December 17, 2009Jaipur

Scaling up and Institutionalization of Social

Audits in Andhra Pradesh

Commitment to transparency and accountability runs throughout the NREGA- flows from the Right to Information Act, 2005;

Onus of providing information is on the State to ensure transparency and accountability;

NREGA mandates that the RTI be followed in letter & spirit – proactive disclosure of information must be strictly complied with at all levels;

In context of this commitment to transparency the Go AP decided to invest its time and energy in the initial phases to create a Management Information System;

Even as the Scheme was notified the MIS was put into place with the help of Tata Consultancy Services;

All job cards were generated by the MIS at the Mandal (Block) level;

Importantly – all payments are made through MIS – musters fed into system, pay-orders generated & money transferred into PO accounts of labourers

IT provides efficient methodology for pro-active disclosure of info

Transaction-based IT architecture - Enable user-defined reports & analysis

Does all this mean – Accountability?

IT in conjunction with primary stakeholders monitoring

Innovative feature of NREGA – central role given to “Social Audits”;

Section 17 of Act mandates conduct of Social Audits

Basic objective - ensure public accountability in implementation of projects, laws & policies;

Entitlement for all stakeholders –participate decision making & validation continuous process of public vigilance;

In AP it began as a project of the Strategies

Performance Innovations Unit (Rural

Development)

A pilot social audit conducted on the NFFWP in 3

villages with help of MKSS under reform action

plan

Pilot Social Audits demonstrated the

effectiveness of social audit process.

A pilot SA of NREGS was undertaken in Nalgonda

District

Realization that unless a formal platform is

provided for the community to ask questions no

amount of publicity will bear fruit in NREGS-AP

Insights of the pilot led to resolve that SA would

be an important part of the NREGS-AP

Decision to begin the process in three districts

initially to evolve a roll-out strategy

Pool of state officials sensitized to Social Audit created within the Department of RD

Pool of State Resource Persons created (#44)

Pool of District Resource Persons created for 22 Districts (#440)

More than 50000 Village Social Auditors trained

Social Audit Tools developed Training

modules/Training films/Step by step process for

doing SA, Rules for SA passed by Assembly

Presently social audit is on in all the 22 EGS

districts.

Society for Social Audit, Accountability and

Transparency formed in May 2009

Mandal is the administrative unit (Average 21

Panchayats) in which SA is done

SA is done in all the panchayats over a 10 day period.

Starts with application filed under RTI for relevant

records of EGS

SRPs &DRPS go into the villages and identify literate

youth (@2-4 per habitation ) from labourer’s families

These are trained as VSAs

100 people (approximately) are formed into 9-10

teams

Each team does Social Audit in 2-3 gram

panchayats

Verification of figures on records with facts on

ground

Awareness building on rights and entitlements of

the wage seekers

Corrective measures are taken immediately

On a pre notified date a social audit public

meeting is held.

Public, concerned officials, political

representatives, media participate

Village wise SA findings are read out, public

testifies, officials respond

Corrective action is taken.

Access to Information and copies of office

records

Cooperation at field level during a social audit

Senior officers from state and district are present

during social audit report reading

Immediate corrective action is taken on the gaps

and lapses

Administration does not interfere at any stage in

the SA process

Number of districts ongoing : 22 Number of Habitations covered : 50,000

Value of EGS works : Rs.3000 Crs

Number of village activists trained: 50,000

Number of MPDOs trained in SA : 600

Number of CSOs involved: >150

Wage seekers reached: 45 lakhs

Applications filed under RTI: 1178

Documents scrutinized publicly: 50 lakh records

Elected Reps participated : 20000

No. Of MLAs attended SA’s : 75

Amount Recovered voluntarily: Approximately Rs.4 crores

One year after initiation SA is an accepted

term

Some check on outright corruption

Wage-seekers have started applying for info

under RTI

Analysis of SA data feeds back into policy level

modifications

Other Depts. are actively exploring doing SA’s

(Mid Day Meal Scheme, BC welfare, Technical

Education, Health etc)

About 1428 Field Assistants and 144 Technical

Assistants dismissed

Criminal Action initiated on 203 people

10 Mandal Parishad Development Officers

suspended

1171 Departmental Enquiries initiated

SSAAT’s role to facilitate Social Audits

◦ Constant bridge building between

administration and civil society activists

◦ Certain non negotiable in the SA itself. Eg:

Findings in SA will be compulsorily read out in

the public meeting, holding of public meeting

regardless of circumstances (like an election) .

◦ Taken forward as a constructive exercise

aimed at strengthening the program and not

as a fault finding or witch hunting mission

DIRECTOR, SSAAT

VILLAGE SOCIAL AUDITORS(4-5 Per Gram Panchayat)

DISTRICT RESOURCE PERSONS ( 20* 22 = 440)

DEPUTY DIRECTORS – (2 Members – Administration / M&E)

NGOs

STATE TEAM MONITORS (5 Members)

STATE RESOURCE PERSONS (2 * 22 = 44)

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST (1)

GO No.431 – Guidelines on conduct of SA

Notification of NREGS-AP Conducting of Social

Audit Rules 2008

◦ Rules to establish SA as an open and

inclusive M&E tool under NREGA

◦ SA as a means to increase transparency &

accountability in administration

GO No.293 – Declaring NREGS as Public Utility

Services for the purposes of settlement of

cases under Chapter VI-A of the Legal

Services Authority Act, 1987

GO No.153 – Financial Guidelines –

earmarking 0.5% of the total NREGA funds for

conduct of social auditing of NREGS.

GO No.155 – Constitution of SSAAT

GO No.171 – Creation of posts for social audit

Exclusive web site for SA – www.

socialauditap.com

Link provided in NREGS website. All SA

reports are now available in the public

domain

SA reports in telugu are sent by post to

GramIT Rural BPO at Ethakota, East Godavari

District

Translated and put on the web-site by a

dedicated team

Setting up a Data Based Management System

Link the NREGS report to the Social Audit reports

Provide insights into the implementation of the scheme to plug loop holes

Generate reports to assess the performance of the implementing agencies

Aug 20th 2009 - National Workshop on NREGA: A step towards governance reform, transparency and accountability

AP social audit process to be AP social audit process to be replicated in all the statesreplicated in all the states