Union Minister of Panchayati Raj, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar released the guide line for the Social Audit of 15th Finance Commission Grants for Panchayati Raj Institutions.
Target of online audit of 100 percent panchayats of the country in the year 2021-22
Shri Tomar said that Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies are important institutions in India's democratic system, which governs the whole country, but the biggest role of Gram Panchayats as the primary government in making this country strong at the basic level. is. There are more than 31 lakh elected public representatives in more than 2 lakh 60 thousand panchayats in the country and the number of women representatives is around 14 lakh.
Shri Tomar said that today we are continuously moving towards self-reliant India under the able leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. Effective steps are being taken for reforms in the country by crossing the barriers from one end to the other. Today, work is also being done to strengthen and enrich the Gram Panchayats, which serve as our primary government. He said that only by making Panchayats self-reliant, villages would become self-reliant and this would set the country on the path of self-reliance.
Shri Tomar said that for a long period after independence, it was felt that the Panchayats do not have the resources they need. But today it can be said with pride that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, along with making Panchayats empowered, their financial resources have also been made available. Along with the Finance Commission in Panchayats, the medium of implementation of many schemes is also being done through Panchayats. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the pace of work in Panchayats has increased, transparency and accountability will also increase.
Union Minister Shri Tomar said that in the 14th Finance Commission, 2 lakh 292 crore rupees were recommended to be given to the Panchayats. Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji had fully accepted this recommendation and said that only when there will be development in the Panchayats, the country will develop, and in the last five years, 97 percent of this grant amount has been sent to the villages. He said that the 15th Finance Commission has also recommended giving Rs 2 lakh 36 thousand crore to the Gram Panchayats in the next five years. This recommendation has also been fully accepted by the government. In the interim report of the Finance Commission, which was recommended last year, 60 thousand crore rupees have also been released to the Gram Panchayats. This amount is sure to develop basic facilities in the villages.
On this occasion Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj Shri Sunil Kumar, Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General Shri RG Vishwanathan, Director General, Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Hyderabad Shri G. Narendra Kumar, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj Shri Chandrashekhar Kumar, Ministry of Panchayati Raj Shri Khushwant Singh Sethi, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Shri Sajjan Singh Yadav, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj and senior officials of the states were present.
Shri Sunil Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj elaborated on the audit online application and the benefits of social audit. He called upon the states and rural local bodies to adopt it at the earliest, to ensure transparency and efficacy in development interventions, for which a large amount of grants are being transferred to rural local bodies.
Two separate sessions were held to deliberate on the themes of the programme. The first session on AuditOnline was presided over by Shri R.G.Viswanathan, Deputy CAG at CAG's office. The event was attended by the Accountants General of the States, representatives of the State Finance Department and senior officials of the Expenditure Department. The Central Finance Commission has repeatedly expressed concern over non-availability of audited accounts of Panchayats. To address this significant institutional reform and further strengthen the financial management and transparency of Panchayats, AuditOnline was launched on 15th April, 2020 by Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj in virtual conference with States to conduct online audit of Panchayat accounts was. The session discussed the way forward for AuditOnline and SMS/email based alert mechanism for follow-up; Incorporated new functionalities like digital signature based final audit report, state wise audit report etc.; So that the system can accomplish the desired objectives in an efficient and effective manner.
During the conference on Social Audit, Director General, NIRDPR- Hyderabad made a detailed presentation on Social Audit Guidelines. The states of Jharkhand, Karnataka and Kerala also made presentations on the results of social audit conducted in their respective states for 14th Finance Commission grant activities etc. The session also included a speech by Shri Vikas Kumar Mahato, Sarpanch- Damdumi, Topchanchi and Shri Ritesh Oraon, Sarpanch- Lalkhatanga, Namkum, Jharkhand who also shared their perspective on the social audit conducted in their Panchayat which resulted in 14th Finance Commission Grant better use.
Background : The Social Audit Guidelines are expected to facilitate transparency and accountability to the Panchayats and towards effective utilization of funds transferred to them. In this regard, Rural Local Bodies (RLBs) have been allocated with 15th Finance Commission grant of Rs 2,97,555 crore for the period 2020-26, effective use of social audit process and online application of Ministry of Panchayati Raj. That is, through AuditOnline, there will be a lot of help.
