In 2017 Meghalaya was the first state to pass the Meghalaya Community Participation and Public Services Social Audit Act, 2017.’ This led to the formation of the Meghalaya Society for Social Audit and Transparency (MSSAT). Social audit was to have been conducted across 11 departments and 21 schemes. However, this social audit was restricted to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) and it functioned under the aegis of the Community and Rural Development Department. Social audit was to be conducted across 11 departments and 21 schemes. The passage of the Act was widely reported across the national media with Meghalaya being seen as a progressive state and an example to other states.
The purpose of the Act was to engage citizens in the planning, implementation and monitoring of all schemes and programmes implemented across rural Meghalaya. The Scheme drew heavily from the model developed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Project in its North East Region Community Resource Development Project (NERCORMP which was implemented in the late 1990s across two of the most backward districts in the states of Assam, Manipur and Meghalaya. The audits are meant for villages to become aware and have easy access to government schemes and also for them to be able to take their grievances to the respective platforms. The purpose of the Social Audit Society was to identify the handicaps in implementation of schemes and to effect course correction and also policy changes.
It may be noted that the Act was passed in November 2017 during the fag end of the Congress-led Meghalaya United Alliance (MUA) government. Elections were scheduled in March 2018. Soon after the NPP-led Conrad Sangma government (Meghalaya Democratic Alliance) took over the Act was given short shrift. Nothing is heard of the Act today. Meghalaya suffers from serious infirmities in that the only information that the public are able to access about progress in implementation of various roads construction and water supply schemes is when legislators question the Government during the Assembly sessions. The media does its own investigation but is limited by the nature of its work which is to report day to day events. Investigation is deep diving and requires investment in human resources that are tuned to investigative journalism which is an art in itself. The roads in Meghalaya need urgent auditing. Why do roads cave in or develop potholes within a year or less of being constructed? Why does road construction not include drainage for stormwater? The fact that water runs over roads is one reason why the already poor road quality deteriorates so quickly. The other question is whether the people of Meghalaya are getting value for money insofar as roads are concerned. Does the public know the total cost of a road project; who the contractor is and whether the policy of Security Deposit or Retention Money has been paid by a contractor who has done a shoddy job? The people of Meghalaya need to find out why the Social Audit Act has been quietly buried and ask that it be resurrected.
