Govt nods to MGNREGS audit
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, November 07 2011:
The State Government has given its consent to conduct a special audit of the MGNREGS being implemented in Manipur.
Even as Manipur was not included among the States against whom Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh issued an instruction recently to audit funds sanctioned for MGNREGS, the State Government gave its consent when the Union Ministry made a proposal for a similar audit in Manipur too.
For this special audit, the State Government has formulated necessary rules and regulations.
The special audit would be conducted by the Accountant General and the Local Fund Audit.
On being enquired about the particular years for which the audit would be conducted, one official informed that this would be decided by the auditors.
The exact time for proposed audit would be fixed by the auditors.
Incidentally, there were many cases of misuse of MGNREGS fund and swindling of wages of job-card holders by village chiefs and Pradhans.
Moreover, there were many complaints from job-card holders of denying them full 100 days' work though the same is guaranteed by the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
Notably, the State Government has already initiated steps to pay MGNREGS wages to the job-card holders directly through banks.