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‘In best NREG state, 20% defrauded’

Ravish Tiwari Posted online: Tue Sep 28 2010, 06:26 hrs
New Delhi : A special audit carried out by the Rajasthan government has detected irregularities adding up to Rs 6.2
crore in the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in 30 panchayats spread
over nearly all districts of the state.

The audit focussed on just the material expenditure component, and was carried out in panchayats in which this
component was large, chosen to cover almost the entire state.

Rajasthan is considered to be one of the major success stories of the NREGS, the UPA government’s flagship rural jobs
scheme.

“This special audit focussed on the expenditure on material component during April 2008 to December 2009. The audit
was conducted in December 2009 and May 2010. I was myself present at one of the audits in Malato Ki Ber gram
panchayat in Ajmer, and found irregularities to the tune of Rs 1.31 crore,” M S Bhukar, Joint Director, Social Audit,
Government of Rajasthan, told The Indian Express over the phone.

Records available with The Indian Express show this panchayat in Ajmer spent Rs 2.47 crore on the material component
during April 2008-June 2009.

Sixteen of the 30 panchayats account for irregularities adding up to about Rs 4 crore. Records show that these
panchayats incurred an expenditure of about Rs 20.42 crore on the material component during April 2008-June 2009.
The fraud, therefore, amounts to nearly 20 per cent of the expenditure on the material component.

As per norms, material component of the scheme at the district level should be under 40 per cent of the total expenditure
in the district.

The irregularities do not include discrepancies, if any, in the payment of wages — the prime area of fraud in the NREGS
— by way of under-payment, fake muster rolls, fictitious workers etc. The special audit was undertaken after panchayat
heads resisted the participation of NGOs and outsiders in the social audit of works.

Rajasthan is one of the largest spenders under the NREGS. Statistics on the scheme’s website show the state spent Rs
6,164.4 crore — or about 23 per cent of the expenditure under the scheme — in 2008-09, the period for which these
special audits were conducted.

Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state, spent only about Rs Rs 3,568.88 crore — or 13 per cent of the total
Rs 27,250.69 crore spent countrywide.

Even in 2009-10, Rajasthan spent about Rs 5,669.03 crore (15 per cent of the total national expenditure of Rs
37,905.22 crore), only slightly behind UP, which spent Rs 5,900.03 crore (15.6 per cent).

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In the backdrop of the fraud, National Advisory Council members Aruna Roy and Jean Dreze on Monday criticized the
government for allegedly “stonewalling” an independent social audit mechanism to check corruption and bring
accountability to the implementation of the scheme at the local level.

Both Roy and Dreze are also members of the Central Employment Guarantee Council (CEGC), the apex body
monitoring the implementation of the NREGS. They also demanded “independence” for CEGC, which is chaired by the
Union Rural Development Minister, in monitoring the scheme, and criticised the Ministry's apathy towards changing the
social audit mechanism and wage policy under the NREGS.

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