Complaints received about over 400 works carried out in 4 yrs
*Comprehensive social audit ordered to fix responsibility
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Jan 16: Misappropriation of Rs 8.62 crore in the execution of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) works in two blocks of Jammu district has surfaced and in order to fix the responsibility and take action against the erring officials of the Rural Development Department a comprehensive social audit has been ordered by the Government.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that Directorate of Rural Development Jammu has received large number of complaints from the inhabitants of Bhalwal and Mathwar blocks of Jammu district regarding illegalities committed in the execution of large number of MGNREGA works during 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-2019 and 2019-20 financial years.
The complaints are relating to poor quality of works and withdrawal of funds against the non-existent works during these four years, sources said, adding these complaints pertain to more than 400 works of different nature in these two blocks of Jammu district.
Though the complaints were being received after regular intervals yet no serious attention was paid towards getting the matter enquired on one or the other pretext as a result of which the grievances of the people remained unresolved.
However, in the month of October last year, all these complaints were clubbed and a committee of four Block Development Officers (BDOs) was constituted to conduct inquiry. “Though the committee submitted its report in the Directorate of Rural Development Jammu yet some important aspects were not touched for the unknown reasons as a result of which it was not possible for the Directorate to take the complaints to the logical conclusion by taking action against the erring officials”, sources said.
Accordingly, Director, Rural Development Department Jammu vide communication number DRDJ-Compl/275/ 2022-02-RDD/42791 dated January 3, 2023 brought the matter to the notice of the Commissioner/Secretary to the Government, Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj.
It has been mentioned in the communication that a preliminary enquiry has been conducted by Assistant Commissioner Development (ACD) Jammu reporting alleged misappropriation of funds amounting to Rs 8.62 crore in MGNREGA works executed in Bhalwal and Mathwar blocks of Jammu district.
Taking serious note of this, Commissioner Secretary Mandeep Kour has directed Director Social Audit to depute team of two District Resource Persons with some experienced Village Resource Persons to comprehensively audit all the works identified in the preliminary report and submit a detailed report fixing the responsibility of the concerned officers.
“Report should reach the office of Commissioner Secretary within 10 days”, read the order the copy of which is available with EXCELSIOR. The Block Development Officer, Mathwar/ Bhalwal has been directed to provide all relevant record(s) pertaining to the case to the committee immediately failing which immediate disciplinary action will be taken against him by the Assistant Commissioner Development (ACD) Jammu.
“Since the number of works required to be audited is quite large, Director Social Audit has sought record from the relevant quarters and started home work. Within next few days the teams will be deputed to these blocks”, sources informed, adding “as comprehensive audit is a lengthy exercise the Government may be requested to grant more time to the audit team for completion of task”.
It is pertinent to mention here that Section 17 of the MGNREGA has mandated social audit of all works executed under the MGNREGA. Social audit focuses on the performance of a programme in fulfilling its intended social objectives and ethical vision through consultation with a range of stakeholders including social programme beneficiaries, community members, Government officials and verifying the information obtained with documents and physical evidence.
“The social audit process is a fact-finding process and the work of the auditor is to investigate by cross-verifying facts and details in the records from the workers and cross-verifying works at site”, sources said.
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