Social Audit Public Hearing held in Longleng, irregularities found

DIMAPUR — The Nagaland State Social Audit Agency’s (NSSAA) social audit unit (SAU) held the third phase of the district level social audit public hearing for the Longleng district on November 23, focusing on fiscal year 2023-24, to demonstrate accountability in the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

The event was held at the VDB and VCC Association conference hall, Longleng, according to a DIPR report.

Speaking on the occasion, Imlirenla Sanglir, assistant director of NSSAA, SAU Nagaland, emphasised the importance of reviewing social audit findings and called for corrective actions from implementing agencies and programme functionaries on the occasion.

Toshimanen Jamir, the district resource person who presented the audit findings, mentioned various issues such as discrepancies between records in the management information system (MIS) and RD block office, as well as job card-related discrepancies, non-maintenance of detailed transparency boards for executed projects, poor upkeep of seven registers, and non-conduct of Rozgar Diwas.

Dr. Samuel Akho Konyak P, EAC Longleng Hq and in charge of Yongnyah Circle, representing the district administration, emphasised the importance of the Rural Development (RD) department providing explanations to NSSAA SAU due to discrepancies in findings across various records.

The audit covered RD blocks Longleng and Sakshi, and thirteen villages were examined, including Yongam, Yongshei, Shamshanching, Yongnyah, Tangha, Sanglu (Longleng Block), and Pongo, Hongnyu, Yongphang, Auching, Sakshi, Yimchong, and Yangching (Sakshi Block).

During the verification process, an amount of INR 13,356 (63 man-days at INR 212) was recovered against payments made to job card holders who were found to be deceased.

The recovered amount was handed over to DPC/PD, District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), Longleng, for onward deposit to the State Employment Guarantee Fund (SEGF) in accordance with MoRD guidelines.

Block development officers, DRDA officials, MGNREGA beneficiaries, village functionaries, village-level organisations, and media persons attended the public hearing.

During the event, resolutions were adopted to update job cards with all beneficiaries’ details, promptly enter all necessary details in entries, including thumb impressions and issue dates, segregate year-wise entries, maintain muster rolls at worksites, and ensure the maintenance of seven registers at the gram panchayat level.

Furthermore, it was decided to hold Rozgar Diwas on a regular basis, to keep detailed transparency boards for all completed projects, to delete or replace job cards belonging to the deceased category after due verification, to keep wall writings for transparency, to initiate capacity-building measures for village functionaries on proper bookkeeping, and to submit action-taken reports (ATRs) within 15 days, beginning on November 24.

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