While the government and the activists have been sparring over the modalities of conducting social audits of NREGA, the Andhra Pradesh government has shown the way it should be done. 

The state has established an independent and autonomous body under the name of Society for Social Audit, Accountability and Transparency (SSAAT) which is responsible for facilitating conduct of social audit by the rural poor.

The commissioner rural development of the state enters into a MoU with SSAAT for conduct of social audit on the basis of a calendar prepared for the same.

This model has proved to be very successful.

Till now discrepancies/misappropriations to the tune of Rs 88 crores have been unearthed and more than 4,600 officials have been preceded against it.

In comparison, in the rest of the country, where social audits are conducted by the gram sabha, presided by sarpanch, no major irregularity has been captured. 

The activists working for NREGA workers have for long argued in favour of the Andhra Pradesh model, however the government has dragged its feet on it.

Contrary to the Andhra model of an autonomous audit body, the rural development ministry has suggested that a directorate of social audit be set up by states on a reimbursement with central assistance for the next 5-8 years and to be handed over to the state government.

“The ministry should not just fund the setting up of a directorate of social audit, but ensure that the directorate is independent and able to carry out its task in the manner that Andhra has done,” said Aruna Roy, member of the central employment guarantee council in her recommendation to the ministry.

A social audit, as mandated by the Act, is one of the many mechanisms to check corruption in the scheme. However with the government surreptitiously introducing an amendment to section 13 of the act, that prevented the participation of the independent parties, the social audit became an exercise controlled by the implementing agency.