District level Social Audit Unit (SAU) and public hearing under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) for seven villages— Langkok village, Kiphire Village, Thazuvi village, Shishimi village, Luthore Village, Moya village and Penkim village—under Kiphire district was held at Hopongkyu Memorial Hall Kiphire, Wednesday.
Addressing the public hearing attended by Village Development Board (VDB) members from the seven villages as observer, Sub Divisional Officer (C) Kiphire, L. Longtiba Sangtam, said if the social audit continues then there would be no need for another audit in the village and encouraged the gathering to be accountable and transparent.
Citing some of his observation during the public hearing, Sangtam said that block officers should be careful while maintaining the records of the project/scheme so as to provide proper audit when auditors come.
Pointing out some weakness of the VDBs, he said that even if they use the funds judiciously, failure to maintain proper records shall invite problems.
Appreciating the resolution adopted during “gram sabha” meeting in the villages, Sangtam urged the villagers to maintain the resolution in letter and spirit. He further thanked the SAU team for their efforts.
Project director, District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) Kiphire, T.Setsathong Sangtam, while chairing the programme, gave a clarification on certain changes in departmental activities. He also lamented none participation of VDBs on trainings and asked them to coordinate with their respective block officers.
In his introductory speech, development specialist, Social Audit Unit (SAU) Nagaland, Imtitoshi Jamir, said that the main propose of social audit was to bring transparency and development in the villages.
He said that people do not maintain proper documentation which was one of the main hindrances for transparency and also invites issues. In this regard, he advised the VDBs to have proper documentations while executing any project/schemes in the villages.
SAU team also gave some suggestions to the VDBs and data base operators to cooperate with the departmental officers. The team also requested them to update MIS regularly on time, proper entry of master rolls and proper transparency board in the villages.
During the public hearing, DRPs/VRPs presented the findings on social audit and read out the “gram sabha” resolution village wise. The BDOs of the concerned blocks clarified for the seven villages brought up by the SAU team to which the participants and officials approved.
While rectifying minor anomalies in some villages, the SAU team was also satisfied with village activities such as construction of approach roads, construction of community toilets etc.
(Correspondent)
WOKHA: Society for Training & Research on Rural Development, Social Audit Unit (SAU) and public hearing under MGNREGA for Wokha district was held on Wednesday at WDVDB & WDVCCA multi-purpose building, Wokha.
According to DIPR report, principal, ETC (SIRD), Dr. Kedise Pucho have an introduction on major keys of social audit under MGNREGA.
He highlighted on how to educate MGNREGAs workers about their rights and entitlements, to promote people’s participation and democratic decisions, to improve the capacity of local stakeholders in implementing programmes and social audit, to promote transparency and accountability in implementation of programmes, to control corruption and improving implementation and create a platform for systematic feedback to improve the schemes and programmes.
Dr. Kedise also stated that SAU covered 59 villages in social audit in 11 districts during the financial year 2014-15 under MGNREGA, subsequently the SAU was conducting public hearing in all the districts and Kohima was the first district to have public hearing on September 11.
District resource persons, SAU, Nagaland for Wokha district, Sara Khesoh and Abenla Jamir presented facts and findings, and highlighted the outcome of the audit conducted in six villages covering four blocks namely, Wokha, Chukitong, Sanis and Wozhuro block under DRDA Wokha.
The social audit was conducted in the following villages, Wokha village, Englan, Shaki, N.Longidang, Chukitong headquarters and Sanis village.
The following resolutions were passed pertaining to various issues, “gram sabha” resolution of Englan village resolved that in place of audit committee, it shall be read as village audit committee, under “gram sabha” resolution of Wokha village MR Nos. 18830 and 18831 which was misplaced have been found and is available in VDBs office. This was clarified by the VDB secretary.
“Gram sabha” resolution, Sanis village that was missing MR No.11508 and 11972 has also been found, as clarified by BDO, Sanis. In the “gram sabha” Resolution, Sanis village there was a mismatched amount in BDOs office and VDBs office due to amount not updated in the Asset Register, and the same was justified by VDB secretary, Sanis village and Gram Sabha resolution under Shaki village it was resolved that the amount mismatched between MIS and Block/Village was due to creation of liabilities which was clarified by BDO, Wozhuro.
Project director-cum-DPC (MGNREGA) DRDA, Wokha, Thungdeno Mozhui who also spoke during the programme, apprised the village functionaries not to divert funds but to implement the schemes and policies as per under MGNREGA guideline since all funding were being monitored through geo-mapping and this social audit would be in continuous process in all the villages in the district on yearly basis.