In a major victory for the members of the civil society and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the field of MGNREGA, the government has revoked the amendment carried out in December 2008 that barred any outsider to participate in the social audits conducted by the gram sabha.

Under the new draft rules, ‘all public representatives and staff involved in the implementation of the scheme under the act (including the staff of non-governmental organization and self help groups etc..if any involved in implementing  schemes shall be present at the gram sabha to respond to the queries.’

The amendment carried out in December 2008 had empowered the gram Sabha to carry out the social audit without any interference from an outside individual, who could only be an observer.

This amendment introduced without any dialogue or discussion with the civil society had evoked a fierce protests and disapproval from many ngos’s including Aruna Roy’s MKSS. 

“The Amended clause 13(b) is not only antithetical to the aforementioned philosophy of Social Audit but also militates against the basic principles of auditing, namely, that the audit function has to be conducted by an independent agency,” Roy had told media-persons after the amendment was enacted.

The basic objection the amendment was that the body primarily responsible for implementing the scheme would never find faults with itself.