SHILLONG: Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said on Friday social auditing involves all stakeholders and enables fast course correction in case a government scheme or project fails to become reality.
Addressing a gathering at the national convention on the Meghalaya Community Participation and Public Services Social Audit Act, 2017, Sangma said social audit was rolled out in 2007 for schemes under MGNREGA. It was later considered so that all programmes implemented by different line departments can be brought under the social audit exercise.
“The government has so many programmes and interventions to take care of the dreams and aspirations of the people, to deal with the disparity in respect of the socio-economic spectrum across the country but things actually don’t happen on the ground as intended. The legislative mandate for social auditing in Meghalaya enables us to… have an immediate course correction,” he said at the conference organised by Programme Implementation and Evaluation Department through Meghalaya Society for Social Audit and Transparency.
Meghalaya has become the first state in the country to pass a social audit legislation. Talking about empowering laws like the RTI, the chief minister said it is misused by many.
“The only way such unpleasant practices can be prevented is when everybody participates, when nothing is hidden and the social audit exercise will be good for all of us. Nothing other than these powerful instruments, which involve people and communities, will help us fight corruption,” he added and admitted that it is a challenge for all politicians to lay down a law that makes things transparent.
Earlier, the chief minister also released the Meghalaya Community Participation and Public Services Social Audit Act, 2017, Draft Social Audit Manual and Draft Rules on the occasion.