About Society For Social Audit Accountability And Transparency
Today the Department of Rural Development spends considerable amount of money towards implementing various schemes of the government. Considering the large area that it has to cover, it is impossible to track the huge volume of benefits it offers. This is despite the fact that the department has put in a fairly vibrant Management Information System (MIS) to keep track of the various projects undertaken by the department. These schemes and programmes which are implemented mainly focus on strengthening services to the poor, especially around building community-based systems.
It is in this context that the Department of Rural Development decided to implement the social audit process as part of the Administrative Reform Action Plan. It began in 2006 as a project carried out by the Strategies Performance Innovation Unit (SPIU), Rural Development in three districts of AP. This later on led to its metamorphosis into the Society for Social Audit, Accountability and Transparency (SSAAT) carrying out regular and concurrent social audits across 22 districts. SSAAT was formally registered as an independent Society on the 15th of May, 2009. While Section 17 of the MGNREG Act mandates the conduct of Social Audits, no clear mechanism of how to conduct a Social Audit has been indicated in the Act or associated guidelines. The first state to make an independent effort to push for this was the Department of Rural Development, Andhra Pradesh.
The results of the pilot social audits were a huge revelation to the senior officials working in the Department of Rural Development who were at that point formulating the operational guidelines for the MGNREGS-AP. More than 90% deviation was found at the last point of delivery, despite the documents and records pertaining to them having been cleared during financially audited. It was in this context that a decision was taken to make social audits an integral part of the implementation of the Scheme. Today, the Andhra Pradesh model has been adopted by the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) as the National Model for Social Audits.
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