Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Tuesday said social audits across government schemes had flagged 7,724 issues in the last three years, of which 724 had been resolved, with action-taken reports uploaded to the public domain. In his supplementary reply, Sangma said the State had gone beyond the Centre’s mandate by enacting the Meghalaya Community Participation and Public Services Social Audit Act in 2017, while 4,19,959 audits had been conducted over the last eight years and 69,524 social audits in the last year alone.
“In the last three years put together, out of 7,724, there are Financial ones which I don’t have the breakup right now, But 724 have been resolved and action, taken report has been uploaded also,” Sangma said during Question Hour in the Assembly.
The Chief Minister was responding to a question from VPP legislator Heaving Stone Kharpran on whether disciplinary action had been initiated on the basis of findings emerging from social audits. Sangma said responsibility for acting on audit findings did not rest solely with the Community and Rural Development (C&RD) Department, as reports were forwarded to the respective departments for appropriate action against implementing agencies.
“It is beyond the C&RD, Sir the procedure is very simple Once the C&RD or when this particular aspect is looked into by the concerned auditing agency, then this auditing agency then sends. the reports to the respective departments,” he said.
Sangma said the social-audit mechanism had expanded across several departments and schemes, covering areas beyond those traditionally associated with the C&RD Department.
“As I mentioned, sir, the schemes are mentioned in the reply. But apart from those schemes. Also different aspects of as I said, aspects like the Jal Jeevan, blue Revolution, revamped distribution from power department, health institutions, there are many other departments, also, where the social audit is done,” he said.
Explaining the process, he said the audit reports were sent to the departments concerned, which were responsible for determining and taking necessary action against the agencies implementing the schemes.
“And the procedure is that once the audit is done, the report is sent to the Department’s concern, and then the Department’s concerned then take the necessary action to be taken Against those Agencies, implementing agencies that are concerned,” he said.
Sangma said details of disciplinary action were maintained department-wise and, therefore, a consolidated figure was not immediately available with the government.
“So, therefore, those are all departmental wise, and that the exact information will not be available with us as of now,” he said.
The Chief Minister, however, pointed to the number of action-taken reports uploaded under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, saying the information was available for public scrutiny.
“The issues are reported, and as I had mentioned, 1491 actions taken report have been uploaded in the MGNREGS MIS, so it is made publicly available,” he said.
Sangma said the State’s social-audit framework operated on two levels — the Union government’s mandatory requirements under various schemes and Meghalaya’s own statutory framework introduced in 2017.
“So, there are two aspects to social audit. One is the central government’s requirement and mandate as per the different schemes that are there, and that’s what the honorable minister just replied to. And then they need to be audited,” he said.
He said the State legislation had enabled multiple schemes implemented by different departments to be brought within the ambit of social audits.
“And based on this particular act, multiple schemes were taken into consideration for social audit across different departments,” he said.
The Chief Minister said the Meghalaya Society for Social Audit and Transparency (MSAT), formed in 2014, had initially been responsible for conducting social audits before the State’s legislation broadened the scope and institutional framework of the exercise.
“So, while in the beginning, the social audit was done by an agency or Society called MSAT, which is the Meghalaya Society For Social Audit and Transparency, which was formed in 2014, This state act came in And once a state act came in, Other schemes Of the government of Meghalaya and the government of India have been slowly and steadily being included in the social audit Procedure,” he said.
Sangma said Meghalaya was among the few States that financed its social-audit mechanism through its own resources, with approximately ₹5 crore allocated annually for conducting social audits.
“Infact we are one of the few states in the country that actually funds the MSAT and the Social Audit through our own fund, approximately Rs 5 crore is budgeted every year for social audits to be conducted,” he said.
Earlier, Minister in-charge of Community and Rural Development Sosthenes Sohtun said social audits had detected financial irregularities in four cases and maintained that the exercise would continue across government schemes.
“four number of cases where financial irregularities been detected, social auditing it is done to every schemes the conduct of the social auditing will continue,” Sohtun said.
69,524 Social Audits Last Year, 7,724 Issues Flagged in Three Years; 724 Resolved
