Over 47 lakhs recovered from 558 panchayats during social audit

The major recovery was from Nagapattinam. There are irregularities found in implementing some of the schemes such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme(MGNREGS). However, till date the single largest recovery was from a computer operator at a village Panchayat in Thanjavur district who had transferred Rs.17 lakh to the account of his wife from the account of village Panchayat in 2015-16. 

For every toilet constructed under Swachh Bharat Abiyan(SBA), he had allotted funds under two schemes such as SBA and MGNREGS, while the toilets are constructed jointly. The irregularity was detected in social auditing and the computer operator had returned the amount back to the panchayat, said Muthumurugan. 

Social auditing is a process in which people verify the account details of a panchayat. The income and expenditure in a financial year would be cross checked. Block Level Resource Persons (BLRPs) are appointed to oversee the social auditing. 

It is said that if the expenditure of a village panchayat crosses Rs 50 lakhs, five persons would be appointed to audit the accounts. For the purpose of social auditing for a village Panchayat people from neighbouring Panchayat would be selected for social auditing and they would be given training by BLRPs for a single day and a test would be conducted for them. 

People who are selected in the exam would be appointed for social auditing and under the  process the financial transactions of every Panchayat would be checked.