The Government of Meghalaya has enacted the Community Participation and Public Service Social Audit Act 2017 with the objective to review the delivery of public service and implementation of Government schemes and programmes through participatory social audit.

It is expected that the attempt will enhance transparency, accountability and most importantly, the community participation, in monitoring and evaluation of selected Government schemes and programmes for the poor and marginalised sections. The Act has provision of formation of State Social Audit Council headed by an eminent person with experience in development sector. The State Council will review and monitor the grievance redressal mechanism and recommend for required improvement.

At the village level, there will be social audit committee with facilitators. Along with details of the schemes and its guidelines, the process of documentation of planning, proposal, sanction and implementation cycle of the schemes are made available by respective departments for presentation in public hearings and the audit process will address the issues such as improvement in process of beneficiary selection and assessment of quality of work etc.

The prepared list of grievances will be registered for time-bound disposal and action. The legislation is an addition to the Right to Information Act as it will further strengthen transparency and accountability in development administration leading to good governance.

The State of Meghalaya has 86 per cent of tribal population and has Sixth Schedule area under the provision of the Constitution. Odisha having 5th Schedule area and a sizable tribal population must go for similar kind of State specific legislation considering its importance for involvement of its vast rural poor, STs and SCs who are still not fully associated with the implementation process of various Government schemes and programmes for their development.

The continued problem in beneficiary selection and implementation process in Odisha has been affecting the very purpose of these programmes and ultimately depriving beneficiaries from their rights and entitlements.

The Odisha Right to Public Service Act, 2012 has a very limited objective which is to provide delivery of public service of selected services to the citizens within a given time limits.

The act has penal provision against the service providers, violating the rules. But the development schemes and programmes remain out of public monitoring and assessment process though this has been realised that it is necessary to empower people to be part of the decision making process at each stage of the implementation of schemes.

In this context, public social audit at grass root level has been used as a tool in promoting transparency and holding the authorities accountable before communities.

The social audit assumes importance after the 73rd Constitutional amendment which aims at decentralisation of power and monitoring of Panchayati Raj institution through social audit process with empowerment of Gram Sabha. Later with introduction of the RTI Act and schemes such as NREGS, social audit has been attached as part of the scheme to ensure greater transparency and involvement of various stakeholders in the process. But social audit has been become irrelevant in the absence of legal power as well as political and administrative will to honour the outcome of the audit.

Experience from the development sector of Odisha shows currently the services provided under different Government schemes and programmes for the development of rural poor, STs, SCs and women for their holistic development require an active participation of the section of people.

The grass root Government officials are not accountable for the ineffective implementation or failure of these schemes. The voice of the people and community organisations is not considered in decision making bodies. The assessment process by the Government shows that the people engaged in evaluation are mostly from the Government and the communities have a very minimal role in the monitoring and evaluation process.

It is found that there are hundreds of schemes and programmes run by the Central and the State Governments for common people but there is lack of informed involvement of the people for whom these schemes are designed out of public fund.

The people involvement in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the schemes is highly important for their success to achieve the targets. The prevailing dominant mindset and operational practices of policy makers and bureaucrats have undermined the role of people who are always seen as illiterate and poor beneficiaries, rather than equal partners of development.

The development of the poor and marginalised is a part of our larger national agenda of brining inclusiveness in economic growth and development. This should not be seen as charity for the poor but must be understood as part of our economic intervention involving various sections of people.

It is also found that a number of schemes are not suitable to the local specific situation and many of these schemes are being mechanically implemented to fulfill the quantitative target to project it as success which has been a major reason of failure of such schemes.

The other major area of concern is genuine beneficiary selection. The reality is nowhere Grama Sabha/Palli Sabha is conducted to discuss the schemes with the people and leave it to the people to decide over the beneficiaries based on the prescribed criteria. In a majority of the cases, there is practice of bribe called PC. In almost all development schemes such as housing, toilet, pension, ration and drinking water in hamlets, the PC is a must.

Experience shows that the Government officials and PRI leaders are not holding meetings with the beneficiaries in their hamlets; rather people are asked to meet the officials at their door step for every small matter and even people have to regularly visit the officials from faraway places to get their entitlements.

There has been news about elderly people traveling long distance to submit their application and inquiry about the status of their benefits.

Social audit process by people is required to re-strategise the process based on the learning from mistakes.

There must be a law to empower the people to question the authorities and hold them accountable for the failure or mismanagement of any scheme and programme. The people must have right to evaluate the impact of various programme meant for their development to enhance good governance and inclusive growth.

(manasbbsr15@gmail.com)

Social audit can ensure probity, effectiveness