By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Dec 11: The entire intent of Social Audit is to be used as a tool to facilitate a participatory governance model by bridging the gap between the citizen and the state in Meghalaya.
This was informed by Principal Secretary of Programme Implementation & Evaluation department, Sampath Kumar, during a consultative meeting which was organised in the city on Saturday by MSSAT — an independent social audit unit set up by Meghalaya — in a bid to disseminate awareness on the importance of social audit.
According to a statement, the meeting, which was attended by members of civil society and government administration, conferred about ideas and rendered suggestions pertaining to implementation of social audits and reforms for strengthening its roll-out in Meghalaya.
Accentuating the need to hold more such meetings, Kumar, in his address, said, “Social audit is part of an important mechanism for building the State Capability while improving the Citizen-State relationship. The State Capability Enhancement Project (SCEP) was launched by the Government of Meghalaya, and social audit is an important pillar as part of addressing critical developmental gaps in the State.”
Former Supreme Court judge, Justice Madan Lokur, who was the chief guest during the occasion, congratulated Meghalaya on being a trailblazer by becoming the first state in India to pass a social audit legislation in April 2017.
“Social audit should not be seen as a means of finding faults with the departments or agencies implementing different development programmes, but should be used for taking corrective measures to bridge the gap between the government intended objectives of the programs and the beneficiaries. Key focus should be laid on creating a sense of accountability through the social audit for providing remedy for the rightful entitlements in the least possible time,” he said.
During the meeting, some key findings following various audits in Meghalaya were also presented before the attendees.
Secretary to Education department, Ambrose Ch Marak, said that social audit has been extremely instrumental to various government departments in gaining information about the implementation of various schemes.
He spoke how, through the social audit, the department could learn how many schools are properly implementing the mid-day meal scheme.
He also spoke about how social audit is often viewed in a negative perspective aimed at finding faults.
“However, the positive aspect of social audit is that the community, as a whole, has been able to learn about their entitlements under the scheme,” he said, adding that the social audit has been a window to assess the correct implementation of schemes at the field level.
Presenting his views, Director of Bethany Society, Shillong, Carmo Noronha, emphasised on the need to use data collected through social audit effectively for improving decisions pertaining to policy reforms as well as improving public service. “This would serve the true purpose of social audits, especially at the community level,” Noronha said.
He also suggested that the social auditors from one village be deployed for auditing purposes in some other villages, on a rotational basis, to reduce chances of biasness and discrepancies.
He suggested the state government to consider involving women through self-help groups as social auditors to bring about credibility and more community participation.
Clement Mawlong, a representative of a community institution, laid emphasis on the need of having an ombudsman in place to specifically address grievances relating to social audit process.
Senior government officials, including Director of MSSAT, Shantanu S Sharma, Secretary of C&RD Sibhi Chakrabarty and Secretary of Education department, Ambrose Ch. Marak, among others, represented various government departments during the session.
Others who flagged their views include activist Angela Rangad, founder member of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, Nikhil Dey, Lead, Social Accountability Forum for Action and Research, Rakshita Swamy, and Sultan Ahmad from Gram Vaani, including Dr. Sandra Albert, Director, IIPH-Shillong.
“They threw light on how the entire social audit process in Meghalaya can be made simpler and easier, especially through a unified portal and app that provides information about all government schemes to the common man in one place,” the statement said.
The suggestion for the introduction of the portal was placed on the lines of Jan Soochna portal — successfully implemented in the states of Rajasthan and Karnataka — which allows people to access information on all government schemes at one place.
The meeting was also attended by representatives of line departments, MSSAT, village durbar (Jalyiah — EJH, Laitkor Rngi — EKH, Umsning & Umran Dairy — Ri Bhoi), and civil society organisations (Bethany Society, Bosco Integrated Development Society, Nongstoin Social Service Society, Anganwadi Workers’ & Helper Union, WSWO among others).