— Dr H K Goswami The ghost of corruption has haunted many public agencies and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is no exception. Bank payments of NREGA wages were recently introduced on a mass scale, and projected as a foolproof remedy against corruption. But recent evidence suggests that the banking system itself is not above corruption. So corrective steps are urgently needed.
The main technique of embezzlement in public employment programmes, including National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is to fudge the muster rolls (attendance sheets). Fake names or inflated attendance figures are entered in the muster rolls, and middlemen pocket the difference. This has been possible because of the cloud of secrecy that surrounded the muster rolls. The NREGA sought to change that based on a range of safeguards, starting with the transparency of muster rolls. For instance, NREGA muster rolls are supposed to be available at the worksite and filled there every day in the presence of the workers, giving them an opportunity to check the details at any time. Similarly, payment details from the muster rolls are supposed to be entered in the workers’ Job cards, enabling them to monitor these payments. However, in practice, it is not done.
Another factor that facilitated corrupt practices in the past was that the same person or agency was in charge of maintaining muster rolls and paying the wages. Since both functions were in the same hands, fudging muster rolls was both easy and profitable. The separation of these two functions is a powerful safeguard against embezzlement. Even before NREGA, this was the norm of drought relief progamme in Rajasthan. There muster rolls were prepared by Gram Pranchyat functionaries with the help of the worksite supervisors whereas wages were paid by the Patwari (a Panchayat level employee of the revenue department). This makes it harder to siphon off funds by fudging muster rolls unless the different actors collude with each other. The need to separate payment agencies from implementation agencies was an important argument for the recent introduction of bank/post office payments of NREGA wages.
Significantly. from a long-term perspective, the payment of wages through bank/post offices is probably a move in the right direction. However, the transition to bank/post office payments has been made in a very haphazard manner. And the results have often been sober. The Union government seems to regard bank payments as a ‘magic bullet” against corruption, but the bullet is in danger of ending up in its own foot.
In Banglapara Gram Panchayat under Bongaigaon district, in Lower Assam, many bogus names were detected in the master rolls prepared for a major water project under NREGA. A report published in a daily published from Guwahati on December 13, 2008, reveals that names of even many school children below 18 years were found in the master rolls. Fake job cards were issued against these names and a huge amount was misappropriated by the concerned junior engineer, post master and the corrupt middlemen.
In Jharkhand, one of the worst performing States as far as NREGA is concerned. the tremendous potential of NREGA is in danger of being wasted due to massive corruption. A survey of NREGA initiated by the GB Pant Social Science Institute in Palamau and Koderma districts reveals that transparency safeguards are routinely violated and funds are being siphoned off with abandon. In Jharkhand, in the absence of Gram Panchayats (the chief “implementing agency” under the NREGA), the implementation of NREGA is effectively under the control of private contractors, or quasi-contractors such as the so-called ‘labhuk samitis’ (beneficiary committees). But private contractors work for profit, and the only way to make profit from NREG scheme is to cheat. In Jharkhand, therefore, corruption is built into the system.
In Haryana, implementation of NREGA is far from satisfactory. The report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) of India for 2007-08 tabled in the Haryana State Assembly on February 10, 2009, says that there were cases of over payment of wages to the same persons and payments shown as disbursed without obtaining proper receipts/signatures/thumb impressions of workers. Similarly, large number of complaints regarding use of machines in execution of works and insertion of bogus names in muster rolls, who were not deployed on the works, were also found. Pointing out that assets created were not beneficial to community, the report says that ponds dug up at a cost of whopping Rs 8.37 crore in Mahendergarh district were without water. The district faces water shortage with water table having gone down alarmingly over the years, the CAG report said. The CAG has criticised dilution of the scheme under NREGA due to poor record maintenance. delayed payment of wages and non-payment of unemployment allowance. The CAG held that the NREGA being a Central law, the Ministry of Rural Development should accept the overall responsibility for coordinating and monitoring its administration and ensuring economical, efficient and effective utilisation of funds provided by the Union government.
In Chhattisgarh, three government officials, including a Sub-divisional Officer (SDO) with Rural Engineering Services (RES) and to Sub-Engineers were arrested on January 19, 2009, and later sent to Jail by a court in Bilaigarh in Raipur district, for irregularities in NREGA work in Bilaigarh. For 54 projects under NREGA in Bilaigarh block, Rs 14.72 crore was sanctioned in March 2008. However, large-scale irregularities were detected in the implementation of work soon after work began in all those projects.
Given that 90 per cent of NREGA funds come from the Centre, The Central government has a right to enforce high standard of transparency and accountability in the programme. The Act gives the Centre wide powers to do so, whether it is through framing rules. conducting investigations, designing an effective monitoring and information system or taking action where there is evidence of fraud. Instead of seizing these opportunities, the Ministry of Rural Development largely expects the State governments to comply with its Operational Guidelines. These guidelines are indeed very good, but their legal status is unclear, and many State governments are treating them lightly. Thus, NREGA is being implemented in a dangerous vacuum, with a few mandatory norms except for the general provisions of the Act. Even basic safeguards, such as the maintenance of job cards and transparency of muster rolls, are effectively left to the discretion of the State governments. This state of affairs makes NREGA quite vulnerable to corruption and other irregularities.
(The writer is former Principal, Mangaldoi College). ASSAM TRIBUNE
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