SHILLONG: To bring accountability and transparency, Meghalaya Government has formed the Social Audit Council and appointed former IAS officer Toki Blah as its Chairman.
Meghalaya Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma after officially appointing Blah as the Chairman at his office chamber in Shillong on Wednesday told media persons that the Council was formed to create an environment which will make transparency and accountability an order of the day.
Sangma believed that the initiative , which is unique, would be replicated by other states of the country
“The beauty of this concept is that it will create an environment where there will be less scope for irregularities in the course of the implementation of the scheme as there will be concurrent auditing and post correction of schemes will be less,” Sangma said.
The tenure of the Chairman would be for five years and all heads and Secretaries of all departments would be part of the Council besides it would also include Civil Society Organisations, Deputy Commissioners of all districts and various resource persons, the Chief Minister added.
Meanwhile, the newly-appointed Chairman of the Social Audit Council, Toki Blah said, that the Council would mobilise the public, CSOs to be part of the Government development activities and carry out a concurrent audit of all developmental works in the State.
“By this initiative , we hope to achieve a major amount of transparency and accountability in the developmental activities and services besides brining the concept of public ownership,” Blah said.
(EoM)
