About Us
Enhancing development outcome with democratic accountability
Our ideals are rooted in democratic principles of participation, equality, equity, and justice in the delivery of services and development programmes to the people by invoking the idea of social accountability, transparency, and citizenship oversight in governance with the support of the government, including local governments.
In the FY 2022-23, Kerala becomes one of the trend-setting states in the country to hold social audits of MGNREGS in all panchayats in the state, thereby making a triumph towards realizing democratic accountability and equity of welfare service provision to the people of Kerala especially the marginalized, poor and women for whom the MGNREGS is an important resort for employment opportunities and livelihood promotion.
Timeline of social auditing in India
While social audits became an important social accountability mechanism advocated by many international organizations since 1980s, social audits in India took the form of public hearings spearheaded by a civil society organization, named Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) in the early 1990s in rural Rajasthan.
United Andhra Pradesh becomes the first state in the country to establish an independent Social Audit Unit (SAU) under the state’s Rural Development Department in 2009. In 2011 the Audit of Schemes Rules was prepared by the CAG, that made it mandatory for every states in the country to institute an independent social audit unit for the conduct of social audit of MGNREGS in every panchayat once in every 6 months. The Social Audit Unit is supposed to ensure its independent nature through an independent bank account, autonomy in staffing, and regulation framing without the interference of implementing departments and officials of MGNREGS in the state.
Since then, different states have started institutionalizing the conduct of social audits of MGNREGS. In 2016, the Ministry of Rural Development in consultation with CAG also promulgated a set of complete guidelines in the form of Auditing Standards for social audit, that gave an additional push for the states to establish independent social audit institutions.
Social Audit has also been mandated by the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013 and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. The Supreme Court has mandated Social Audit in the implementation of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 and the Building and Other Construction Workers Act, 1996. The Supreme Court has also said that the Social Audit Unit of MGNREGA should facilitate Social Audit of NFSA.
Status of social audits in India, 2021 published by NIRD says that only 23 states in the country have instituted independent social audit units. Among these units, some are reported to be non-functional and in some states like Sikkim, social audits are carried out by voluntary organizations.
Social audits in India are funded by the Government of India and 0.5 percent of the MGNREGS expenditure of the state is earmarked for the state’s Social Audit. The funds for the Social Audit Unit are released by the MoRD, GoI to the SAU’s independent bank account through the State Government. Nationally funded social audit unit is administered through an independent social audit society formed by the State Government, which inevitably provides a space for citizens to hold the government accountable to them which is radical in every respect.
MGNSASK, Our Journey
Kerala’s experiment with decentralized planning gained widespread attention in revolutionizing the potential of local self-government institutions and their capacity to govern. When the NREGA Act was passed in 2005, it made a break from the past by giving the power of formulating and implementing development projects at the local level to Panchayati Raj institutions. It gave a significant push to strengthen of democratic decentralized governance in the country.
Having in place a sound decentralized administrative machinery at the local level, Kerala was institutionally best placed to welcome an independent social audit unit with the support of the Local self-government department, Government of Kerala in 2015.
The social audit unit in Kerala is called Mahatma Gandhi NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) Social Audit Society, Kerala, or MGNSASK. The society is registered under the Travancore Cochin Charitable Societies Act, of 1955.
Mandate
Since, then the state began its journey of conducting fair and transparent social audits at the ward level by recruiting and training different levels of social audit resource persons, extending management, regulatory support with evaluation and feedback, and also setting in place a robust grievance redressal mechanism as envisaged in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and Audit of Scheme Rules 2011. Apart from MGNREGS, the social audit unit also conduct social audits for other schemes like PM POSHAN, PMAY-G, Aarogya Keralam, Ayyankali Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme, etc.
Vision and Mission
MGNSASK envisions establishing a vigilant society for effectively conducting Social Audit of Mahatma Gandhi NREGS in the state based on the principles of Accountability, Transparency, and Participation.
We work with the mission to involve public vigilance and verification of quantity and quality of works under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS at different stages of implementation in every Grama Panchayat as a continuous and ongoing process.
We Work Towards
- Ensuring the participation of all stakeholders in the planning, decision-making, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Mahatma Gandhi NREGS.
- Ensuring public accountability and transparency in the implementation of projects under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS and the laws and policies related to Mahatma Gandhi NREGA.
- Ensuring the entitlements of the MGNREGS workers and setting up all worksite facilities for them.
- A fact-finding process by investigating through cross-verification of facts at work sites and duties and responsibilities of laborers involved in the scheme.
- Ensuring people’s participation in community development through Mahatma Gandhi NREG in the Grama Sabhas and Public hearings.
How we are governed?
Governing body is constituted by the State Government, presided by a chairman, and convened by a director which forms a significant decision-making body of MGNSASK. The Governing Body of the SAU will be responsible for overseeing the performance of the unit periodically and provide the necessary advice and direction as and when needed.
The director, once appointed becomes the chief administrator of the social audit unit. He is directly involved in date to day management of the society such as budget formulation, recruitment of staff and social audit resource persons, preparing audit calendars, regulation framing, and finally evaluating and monitoring the social audit activities in the state.
Apart from governing body, there is also a General Body and an Executive Committee which are additional consultative bodies with representation from various state government departments and representatives of Civil Society Organizations and the representatives of the Local Government Associations to support the decision-making process of the Social Audit Unit.