Status of Social Audit in West Bengal 10 th March 2015 New Delhi

Social audit unit: Institutional arrangements Panchayats & Rural Development Department (P&RDD) West Bengal State Rural Development Agency (WBSRDA) Independent Social Audit Unit (SAU)

Social audit unit: human resources- State level 4 Social Audit Experts The Director of Social Audit State Social Development Consultant 4 Social Audit Resource Persons Identified Engaged Selection process initiated

Social audit unit: human resources- District level 124 Social Audit Resource Persons ADM in Charge District Nodal Officer for Social Audit Identified Entrusted Selection process initiated All outside the District MGNREGA Cell OMBUDSMANOMBUDSMAN OMBUDSMANOMBUDSMAN

Social Audit Volunteers (SAV)  Most of the blocks already have selected the social audit volunteers  Unemployed / retired persons preferably having Secondary School level background  Mostly from the wage seeker households  Must not be resident of the concerned GP  Must not have any direct relation with any of the implementing agencies  In a team of 5, at least 3 should be women volunteers (the team is now being extended to accooomdate other programs)  25 % representation from the SC/ ST households Block level Selection Committee notified (Block Programme Officer/Jt. Block Programme Officer, BSAC/ a nominated official in case of the BSAC is not available, PDO/PAAO, any other official nominated by the concerned BDO)

Independence of the SAU  Independent Society (WBSRDA) governing the SAU  Director, SAU reporting directly to the Principal Secretary  District SAUs separated from the MGNEGA Cells in the districts  ADM, SA reporting directly to the Director, SAU  Separate Office for the SAU at the State and the Districts (under process)  Separate Bank Account for the SAU  Direct placement of fund  District SAUs directly funded by the State SAU Directorate

Programs brought under the net  MAHATMA GANGHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE ACT (MGNREGA  INDIRA AWAAS YOJANA (IAY)  NATIONAL SOCIAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME (NSAP)  SWACHH BHARAT MISSION (GRAMIN) (SBM-G)  BACKWARD REGION GRANT FUND (BRGF) …

Capacity building of the core staff  Since most of the core staff are from the existing DSACs and BSACs, they are already trained and performing  In the new set up a three-week field training planned in May 2015  In course of the training an entire district (Uttar Dinajpur) is to be covered  NIRD is to support, a CSO (PACS) to be actively associated  Basic training by NIRD  Community Mobilisation by PACS  Overall coordination (notification of public hearing, sending observers etc.) by the district administration  One round of SA in the entire district in course of the training

Training of Volunteers Social Audit (VSAs)  3/5 days initial training and 2-days refresher training  Residential training at the Extension Training Centers / District Training Centers  Training module being redesigned with support from PACs  5 days field verification, 3 days for document verification, 1 day for Jana Sunani at Gram Sansad and 1 day for Jana Sunani at Gram sabha for all the schemes under MGNREGA, and other other development programmes including IAY, NSAP, BRGF, SBM etc.

Five Fundamentals of Social Audit i. Social audit by stakeholders from outside the village ii. Training of stakeholders in reading of records iii. Furnishing the copy of all records (rnusters/rn-books/pay orders) to the stakeholder youth iv.100% check of all payments and all work-sites and v. Preparation of report and reading out in the Gram Sabha