Social audit better than vigilance committees: NGOs

HUBLI: Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa's statement that district-level Kavalu Samitis (vigilance teams) would monitor spending of flood relief funds, has not found favour with NGOs. They feel a social audit by village-level committee comprising of flood victims, will be better than vigilance committees full of government officials or legislators.
"The CM's statement raises a lot of questions''.There is no clarity on these Samitis, said Susheela Kamath, a member of the NGO SS Sangha. "Who will be the members of these bodies? Will flood-affected villagers be part of them? What will be the roles and responsibilities of these Samitis? Will they be able to reprimand officials if they go wrong? she said. She feels a decentralized social audit done by flood relief beneficiaries would be ideal. SSS works among SHG members in north Karnataka to create awareness about RTI and NREGA.
"The biggest advantage of a social audit is that people are the driving force behind them. Social audit is any day better than any government appointed vigilance committee, Basavaraj G J of the Parivarthan NGO said. His organization is campaigning for transparency in governance.
"Social audits of the NREGA scheme in Rajastan have made the scheme more transparent and efficient. People in Rajastan now have more information on what the scheme is all about and what does it have for them. We would have liked it if the government had spoken of a social audit'', Basavaraj said.
'`Looking at all the committees the state government has constituted till now, we have little hope the CM will do a good job at constituting a vigilance committee. I am sure it will be filled by his own party men'', Maruti Manpade, president of the Karnataka Pradesh Raitha Sangha said. The second best option after social audit is to have a committee that has a majority of flood victims, he said. They need to have a non political approach by including opposition members, and Raitha Sangha functionaries, he said.
What is a Social Audit?
Social audit is a process in which people, beneficiaries of schemes or calamity victims work with the government to evaluate the implementation of programmes or policies. The audit process is simplified and rewritten in lay mans language. The schemes implementation is made transparent. The audit report is made public. The feedback from the audit is made to improve the scheme next time. The most famous social audit effort has been the Jan Sunvai of the NREGA scheme by the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan in Rajasthan. The Union government's NREGA committee has used vital data obtained from the Rajasthan experiment, in improving it in stages.