1 National Rural Employment Guarantee Act A National Perspective and Issues of Governance C.R.Kamalanathan Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad This lecture seeks to throw light on how the essential elements of a good governance framework, comprising goals, structures , systems and processes have been built into the legal and policy frames, institutional structures and internal business processes, and external employment provision, and enforced on the personnel in charge of planning, programming, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the same, to ensure efficient ,effective and corruption free execution of the massive mission for removal of rural unemployment and poverty. Governance Governance is typically about the way public servants take decisions and implement policies, the important role of leadership in ensuring that sound governance practices are instilled throughout the organization, and the wider responsibility of all public servants to apply governance practices and procedures in their day-to-day work. Source :(Public Sector Governance- Framework, Processes and Policies--- Australian National Audit office) 1 Lecture delivered at the I.I.M. Lucknow on the 23 rd . November, 2010 1
Transcript
1 National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
A National Perspective and Issues of Governance
C.R.Kamalanathan Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad
This lecture seeks to throw light on how the essential elements of a good governance framework, comprising goals, structures , systems and processes have been built into the legal and policy frames, institutional structures and internal business processes, and external employment provision, and enforced on the personnel in charge of planning, programming, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the same, to ensure efficient ,effective and corruption free execution of the massive mission for removal of rural unemployment and poverty.
Governance
Governance is typically about
the way public servants take decisions and implement policies,
the important role of leadership in ensuring that sound governance practices are instilled throughout the organization, and
the wider responsibility of all public servants to apply governance practices and procedures in their day-to-day work.
Source :(Public Sector Governance- Framework, Processes and Policies--- Australian National Audit office)
According to OECD, the concept of governance denotes ‘the use of political authority and
exercise of control in a society in relation to the management of its resources for social and
economic development’. Public sector governance covers ‘…the set of responsibilities and
practices, policies and procedures, exercised by an agency’s executive, to provide strategic
direction, ensure objectives are achieved, manage risks and use resources responsibly and with
accountability.’ In this broader perspective governance is viewed as ‘the exercise of economic,
political and administrative authority to manage a country's affairs at all levels and comprises
mechanisms, processes, and institutions through which citizens and groups of articulate their
interests, exercise their legal rights, meet their obligations, and mediate their differences.' (UNDP
1997).
1 Lecture delivered at the I.I.M. Lucknow on the 23rd. November, 2010
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Modes of Governance
Modes of governance have been changing over time. Originally conceived as hierarchic or
governance by law, based on the Weberian model, it is being viewed progressively as flat
networks, or as being managed with community participation, and as market governance where
the accent is on steering, regulation and coordination. Governance can denote goals, structures,
and processes. Treating it as a goal and based on normative grounds, it could be viewed as good
governance or as transformative governance, in terms of ecology, sustainability, technology, and
grass roots democracy, as is the case with the NREGS, as we will presently see. Viewed as
structures and based on the relevant sector, it could mean corporate governance, or public
governance; and in turn local rural or urban governance, based on the salutary principle of
subsidiarity. Viewed as a process it could be participatory or engaged governance as UNDP
christens it, to mainstream citizens into the public policy processes.
Good governance
Public service is no longer treated as charity doled out at the will and pleasure of the State. An
idealist conceives governance as a framework of good governance, that is, as development that
'gives priority to poor, advances the cause of women, sustains the environment, and creates
needed opportunities for employment and other livelihoods' (Re-conceptualizing Governance
UNDP ) with structures and processes shaped by the application of core governance principles
and best practices. This view of good governance is tailor made for this programme in so far as it
is a rights based sustainable development initiative to provide unskilled employment, without
discrimination, which casts corresponding legal obligations and accountabilities on the public
servant to secure these rights.
Twin objectives of good governance
Good governance is about performance, i.e. how an agency uses governance arrangements to
contribute to its overall performance and the delivery of goods, services or programme. It is
equally about conformance, i.e. how an agency uses governance arrangements to ensure that it
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meets the requirements of the Constitution, built on the fundamental rights conferred on the
citizen, the laws, regulations, norms and published standards, and community expectations of
probity, accountability and openness.
Source :(Public Sector Governance- Framework, Processes and Policies--- A N A O)
Legal Framework
Rights based approach to development
The “right to life” is a fundamental right of all citizens under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. “Right to life… includes the right to live with human dignity; it would include all these aspects which would make life meaningful, complete living.” (Supreme Court) Article 39a) in the Directive principles of State policy specifies that “The State shall… direct its policy towards securing that the citizen, men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means of livelihood…” Under Article 41 of the Directive Principles the State shall, within the limits of its economic capacity and development, make effective provision for securing the right to work, to education and to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement, and in other cases of undeserved want. The NREG Act seeks to give statutory effect to this right.
Taking Governance to the people
Article 243 G of the Constitution as amended by the 73 rd amendment to the Constitution seeks to realise the laudable objective of District Rural Government. The NREG scheme is conceived on the principle of subsidiarity and bottom up participative planning and provision of unskilled employment to the rural poor.
The Minimum Wages Act 1948
The Minimum Wages Act supplements the NREG Act in ensuring the statutory right of a worker for minimum wage
Right to information Act 2005
The Right to information Act fully reinforces the NREG Act in ensuring pro active disclosure of information relating to the programme; as also information on demand under the provisions of the Act facilitating social accountability obligations and the social audit process relating to the Scheme.
Disclosure and Protection to Persons Making the Disclosure Bill
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With the likely passage of the Bill pending before Parliament it is hoped that sad instances of murder of civil society activist would be things of the past; and that whistle blowers will be emboldened to make disclosures of massive misappropriation and irregularities without having to face serious intimidation and threats to life. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), 2005
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), 2005 is land mark legislation in Indian history of social security legislation after independence. The NREGS is perhaps the largest programmme of its kind and the only one in the world guaranteeing work, in terms of resources employed and the number of people targeted. It builds in the fundamental principles of accountability, transparency and integrity all through the value chain through the mechanism of participatory management of services and full association of civil society. Civil society involvement in this ensures inclusive, equitable, responsive, open, transparent, and accountable government through an enabling environment for adversarial and advocacy action and substantive, participatory and collaborative action. It grants the right to work, compensation in the event of failure, or delay in providing work, ensures gender equity, attempts to provide, apart from the right to work, the ability to demand the same through the organization of eligible workers through Shram Shakhti Sanghas, i.e., workers fronts , guaranteed minimum wage, and the right to equal wage without discrimination, right to information through both proactive publication and on demand supply of information, access to process, copy of records, right to take samples, and to inspect work. Grievance redress is built in. Whistle blower protection has also been initiated.
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme introduced following the Act is a massive programme, in terms of both resources and coverage of citizens, and highly transaction intensive, discretionary and widely dispersed programme, spread over, in terms of time and space, the whole of rural India. It is the most unique programme of its kind conferring the right to employment as a legal right for the first time in the whole country. The design of the NREGS programme is unique in being largely demand driven, rights-based, time bound and bottom up planning, with incentive and disincentive structures, and guaranteed resource availability and accountability.
NREGA Policy Framework
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005- Operational Guidelines 2008 comprehensively deal with all legal and operational procedures of the programme.
Vision -Strategic Framework- Plan of Action (2010-11) May 2010 seeks to build capacity of the system to deliver the legal guarantee of unskilled employment and developing capabilities of the people to demand the rights legally conferred on the citizens.
Objectives of the Programme
The Act aims at enhancing livelihood security of households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. The Act also seeks to
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create durable assets and strengthen the livelihood resource base of the rural poor. The choice of works suggested in the Act address causes of chronic poverty like drought, deforestation, soil erosion, so that the process of employment generation is on a sustainable basis. The Act came into force on February 2, 2006 and was implemented in a phased manner. In Phase I it was introduced in 200 of the most backward districts of the country. It was implemented in an additional 130 districts in Phase II 2007-2008. The Act was notified in the remaining 285 rural districts of India from April 1, 2008 in Phase III. NREGA is the first ever law internationally, that guarantees wage employment at an unprecedented scale.
The primary objective of the Act is augmenting wage employment. Its auxiliary objective is strengthening natural resource management through works that address causes of chronic poverty like drought, deforestation and soil erosion and so encourage sustainable development. The process outcomes include strengthening grass root processes of democracy and infusing transparency and accountability in governance.
Salient Features of the Act
Salient features of the Act are summarised below:
a) Adult members of a rural household may apply for employment if they are willing to do unskilled manual work. b) Such a household will have to apply for registration to the local Gram Panchayat, in writing or orally. c) The Gram Panchayat after due verification will issue a Job card to the household as a whole.The Job card will bear the photograph of all adult members of the household willing to work under NREGA. The Job card with photograph is free of cost.d) A Job card holding household may submit a written application for employment to the Gram Panchayat, stating the time and duration for which work is sought. The minimum days of employment have to be fifteen. e) The Gram Panchayat will issue a dated receipt of the written application for employment, against which the guarantee of providing employment within 15 days operates.f) Employment will be given within 15 days of application for work by an employment seeker. g) If employment is not provided within 15 days, daily unemployment allowance in cash has to be paid. Liability of payment of unemployment allowance is of the States h) At least one-third of persons to whom work is allotted have to be women. i) Disbursement of wages has to be done on weekly basis and not beyond a fortnight j) Panchayat Raj Institutions [PRIs] have a principal role in planning and implementation. k) Each district has to prepare a shelf of projects. The selected works to provide employment are to be selected from the list of permissible works The different categories of permissible works are as follows:
Water conservation and water harvesting Drought proofing (including plantation and afforestation) Irrigation canals including micro and minor irrigation works Flood control and protection works Minor irrigation, horticulture and land development on the land of SC/ST/BPL/IAY and land reform beneficiaries
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Renovation of traditional water bodies including desilting of tanks Land development Rural connectivity
The shelf of projects has to be prepared on the basis of priority assigned by Gram Sabha. At least 50% of works have to be allotted to Gram Panchayats for execution. A 60:40 wage and material ratio has to be maintained. Contractors and use of labour displacing machinery are prohibited.
l) Work should ordinarily be provided within 5 km radius of the village or else extra wages of 10% are payable.
m) Work site facilities such as crèche, drinking water, shade have to be provided.
n) Social Audit has to be done by the Gram Sabha at least once in every six months.
o) Grievance redress mechanisms have to be put in place for ensuring a responsive implementation process.
p) All accounts and records relating to the Scheme are to be made available for public scrutiny and to any person desirous of obtaining a copy of such records, on demand and after paying a specifed fee.
Institutional framework
The Ministry of Rural Development is in charge of implementation of the Programmme . This it does through the State government departments of Rural Development and the 615 District Panchayats.
Summary of the roles and responsibilities of the key agencies Administrative level
Elected local governments Agent/agency Responsibilityunder NREGA
District (zilla) Zilla Parishad Preparation of district plans and labor
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budget. Monitoring and supervision of REGS activities.
Block (taluk) Taluk panchayat Identification of priority areas of REGS activities. Consolidation of the gram panchayat plans at the block level into a block plan. Proposal, scrutiny, and approval of district plan REGS activities. Monitoring and supervision of REGS activities.
Village (gram) Gram panchayat Identification of priority areas of REGS activities. Proposal, scrutiny, and approval of respective REGS projects. Execution, monitoring, and auditing of gram panchayat–funded REGS activities.
Public administration
Central government Ministry of Rural Development
Nodal agency for NREGA implementation. Resource provision and assessment of resource use and NREGA processes and outcomes.
Central Employment Guarantee Council Review, monitoring, and evaluation of NREGA-related activities.
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State State government Formulation of REGS.
State Employment Guarantee Council Review, monitoring, and evaluation of REGS activities. Resource allocation and administrative, financial, and technical support to local government tiers.
District (zilla) District program coordinator Overall responsibility for REGS implementation. Scrutiny and approval of the plan proposals of all taluk panchayats; consolidation of a district plan proposal. Release and utilization of funds. Monitoring and supervision of REGS activities. Performance assessment of employment guarantee assistant.
Technical Resource Support Group Assessment of the technical feasibility and cost efficiency of district plan REGS activities. Supervision and evaluation of REGS work implementation.
Block (taluk) Block program officer (previously block development officer)
NREGA coordinator at the block level. Technical sanction/approval of the gram panchayat annual plan of REGS activities. Submission of a consolidated statement of approved block-level proposals to the taluk panchayat. Performance assessment of employment guarantee assistant. Monitoring and supervision of REGS activities, including the implementation of a social audit by the gram sabhas.
Junior engineer Assessment of the technical feasibility and cost efficiency of district plan REGS activities. Supervision and evaluation of REGS work implementation.
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Village (gram) Employmentguarantee assistant Monitoring of REGS work implementation at the village level and maintenance of REGS-related documents. Responsible for the process of registration, distribution of job cards, work allocation, wage payments, etc.
Source :TABLE A1 page 27 (International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) How to Overcome the Governance Challenges of Implementing NREGA ;Insights from Bihar Using Process-Influence Mapping IFPRI Discussion Paper 00963 ; April
Core good governance principles
Governance is good and effective when the framework is grounded on, subscribes to, promotes
and ensures the following characteristics of public governance viz,
-Strategic vision and leadership - Equity -Subsidiarity - Responsiveness
- Effectiveness & Efficiency -Rule of law
We have now to see how the above principles and characteristics of good governance have been built into the scheme. The design of the NREG programme is unique in being largely demand driven, rights-based, time bound and bottom up planning, with incentive and disincentive structures, and guaranteed resource availability and accountability.
Transparency
Transparency is required to ensure that stakeholders have trust in the institution. It is essential, by virtue of the right to information, to be transparent in the matter of information, actions, decisions, conduct and processes. Asymmetry of information is the greatest danger to good governance and the root of corruption. Open consultation with stakeholders leads to effective and timely action which stands up to close scrutiny Transparency comprises openness of information, processes, policy, decisions and conduct.
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In order to ensure the effective implementation of NREGA, the guidelines include provisions for
comprehensive Web-based MIS (www.nrega.nic.in) that places all data in the public domain,
Bharat Nirman Rajiv Gandhi Sewa Kendras as village knowledge resource centre
Web enabled household based database in public domain covering workers’ entitlements: viz registration, job cards, employment demanded and allocated, days worked, muster rolls, unemployment allowance, payments and compensations due., work data of sanctioned shelf of works, work progress, measurement, inventory of works/assets, online financial proposals, funds available/spent, amount paid as wages, materials and administrative expenses,etc.
Information walls in the villages, electronic payment system with biometric smart card identification, to be linked minimizing the
possibility of fraudulent payments, data analysis for consistency and alerts for top functionaries in each village with
technical and administrative approvals, indicating plot numbers of the sites, location identity for each worksite, outcome proposed from the works,
keeping asset registers at G.P, muster rolls to be on the NREGA website, cent percent verification of muster rolls country wide 10.9 Crore Job cards and 3.9 crore muster rolls are in public domain drillable to job card,
work muster roll level
Accountability.
A person or organisation assigned a task, function or responsibility and provided power and resources to accomplish the same is required to implement the same in accordance with the law, principles and procedure, in the best interest of the State and the public interest. He has to, if and when called upon, justify his conduct and action, explain the manner in which he exercised the power and expended the resources, and be responsible for the output expected of the action. It comprises horizontal, vertical and diagonal accountability, comprising political, legal, administrative and social accountability. Components of accountability are answerability, sanction, redress, and system improvement. Public servants are accountable, both internally and externally, for their conduct and action, input, process, and performance. Legal, administrative, financial and performance accountabilities are aspects that need close monitoring. Accountability arrangements built into the scheme are examined under the following heads.
Grievance Redress
State Grievance Redress system
District level grievance officer
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On line 24/7 helpline for grievance redress, complaints monitoring and redress mechanisms and procedures at the block and
district level, Register grievances of workers and tracking of complaints and action taken Whistle blower protection mechanism under consideration
Ombudsman in each district to independently enquire into complaints
Vigilance
Programme specific vigilance system spread though out the country,
Independent chief State Chief vigilance officer who reports directly to government
Village and district level vigilance and monitoring committees
Audit
Internal audit and concurrent evaluation Audit by CAG
Performance Audit of NREGA implementation
Social Accountability
In view of the inadequacies of internal accountability mechanisms public accountability or social accountability has come to the fore off late to secure compliance and conformity. The most important tool employed for this purpose is social audit. This takes the following forms in the programme.
Social audit by gram Sabha
Social audits in campaign mode
Independent social audit through a state sponsored Directorate in A.P (SSAAP) for streamlined state sponsored social auditon a large scale through out the state based on a pre set time table.
State level association of NGOs in A.P.(APNA) for organising eligible job seekers to demand fulfilment of their rights under the Act.
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Integrity
Integrity is accountability to one self. It is based upon honesty and objectivity, and high standards of propriety and probity in the stewardship of public funds and resources, and management of an entity’s affairs. Public officials are stewards of the powers and resources entrusted to their care and have to exercise their powers on behalf of the nation ensuring corruption free delivery of services, financial sustainability and the efficient and effective management of resources.Integrity violations are sought to be punished through established systems public service discipline, Criminal proceedings, civil recovery, confiscation of disproportionate assets, and conflict of interest regulations. For instance, in the State of A.P., loss on account of detected cases of misappropriation amounts to Rs.860 million. Undetected cases are likely to be substantial. In the course of strict enforcement 1428 field assistants and 144 technical assistants d have been disismissed, 1150 officers have been suspended, 203 civil suits for recovery filed, and about 600 criminal cases have been filed for criminal prosecution.Recovery of misappropriated amounts are sought to be done in the soial audit meetings themselves where the charges were found to be true.
Citizen and civil society engagement or participation
It involves informing, consultation, collaboration and participation, and means mainstreaming
citizen in the public policy processes and programmes. Civil society role in the programme is of
two kinds:
1. adversarial action to force an unwilling government to act and
2. advocacy, participation and collaboration in an enabled environment
Their involvement and association with the government can relate to governance structure and
functions, asset, resources, and fiscal and financial management systems, and such other internal
operative business systems, and external service delivery processes and procedures. These may
cover personnel management and fiscal and financial management including budgeting,
expenditure management, reporting, accounting, audit, performance management and
evaluation.The civil societies seek a role in participation and collaboration to secure
I. enabling environment through adversarial and advocacy action from the government.
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II. substantive, participatory and collaborative action. It is however noted that the civil
society bodies seldom take up the adversarial tasks confronting the government unlike the
MKSS etc. and prefer to do advocacy and participatory functions.
These they do in respect of this scheme through
1. secure information for the citizen
2. raise awareness, educate the citizens of their rights and organise the unemployed rural
folk into unions to demand employment, through Shram Sakthi sanghas as has been
done in A.P,
3. complain and demand answers and raise voice and protest as has been abundantly
demonstrated by MKSS in Rajasthan,
4. participate in the bottom up planning process
5. express grievances
6. seek to enforce rights of the people in relation to the rights conferred in the scheme,
7. undertake performance assessment through social audit,
8. independent evaluation,
9. public hearing ,and
10. whistle blowing.
Tools that civil society bodies employ for these purposes are the RTI Act, peoples planning,
participatory budgeting, third party inspections, tracking expenditure, Informal Vigilance
committees, research into service related aspects, whistle blowing, social audit, citizen juries,
Public hearings, public interest litigation to seek enforcement of rights. and the like.
Strategic vision denotes the desired or intended future state of an organization in terms of its fundamental objectives and/or strategic direction on the part of the political leadership and the higher civil service personnel. This vision is transformed into a strategic plan of action to fulfill the objectives of a programme. The Centre has published a draft Vision document and an Action Plan outlining the specific actions proposed in a time bound manner. It is political vision and leadership that has lead to its successful implementation where ever the programmee has succeded
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Subsidiarity
We have already noticed how in accordance with the spirit of the 73rd. amendment to the Constitution this program is envisaged as a decentralized bottom up process through the district Panchayat.
Responsiveness
This refers to citizen centric positive attitude in respect of issues and problems facing the citizen viz a viz the State. The NREGS sets time frames for fulfillment of obligations under the Act itself. Section 25 of the Act provides for levy of penalties in the event of violation of the provisions of the Act. The Guidelines provide for citizen charters to make the public servants abide by the standards of service delivery envisaged.
Efficiency and effectiveness
These involve the best use of resources to further the aims of an organisation with a commitment to evidence-based strategies for improvement. Efficiency thus requires objectivity, the application of the principles of merit, and management covering productivity and performance appraisal. Well defined guidelines, standards, and rules are specified in a charter of service for scrupulous observance, including statutory directions for fines and penalties for failure.
Rule of law
The implementation of the Act is built on the statutory and policy framework outlined above and so is justitiable in a court of law.
Key governance issues
Agencies need to have an approach to governance that enables them to deliver their outcomes effectively and achieve high levels of performance, consistent with applicable legal and policy obligations. A good governance framework should address itself to the following key governance issues Viz.,
a) leadership, ethics and culture; b) People’s participation; c) Risk management; d) Information and decision support;e) Planning and performance monitoring; f) Internal conformance and accountability; g) External conformance and accountability; and h) Constant review and evaluation of governance arrangements.
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Leadership
Excellent leadership must be supported by a strong organizational culture. It has been noticed, in the implementation of the program that, where there has been high level political commitment and vision, as in A.P, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala, the programme implementation has been highly successful. Without leadership, ethical conduct and a performance culture there would be no foundation to build on and support and sustain the framework as a whole.
People’ participation
Participation and involvement influence the effectiveness of all three central components of planning and performance monitoring, internal conformance and accountability, and external conformance and accountability. We have already seen how citizen and civil society participation, both in the nature of advocacy and adversarial approach, has been built into the progamme, all through the planning and implementation process.
Risk management
Risk management is fundamental to governance; and has been a key concern in the shaping of this scheme. Various risks and vulnerabilities in the whole value chain or process flows have been identified with red flags at the appropriate situations therein to establish and implement sound systems for risk oversight and management in the implementation of the Act. Business process re-engineering and application of I.C.T. done in the programme formulation and implementation are capable of ensuring that areas of serious risk are duly taken care of, and leakages and lapses in execution are avoided. Extensive use of Information, communication technologies including G I S and satellite imagery have been made to re-engineer corruption prone business and service delivery processes and to secure technology up gradation of the programme. The entire programme is computerized and is on line in Andhra Pradesh.
The methods and devices employed include:--
1. Web based proactive publication of information
2. Computerised data base
3. Centralised On Line Help Line for grievances redress
4. Bio-metric smart card for enrolment, identity, and electronic payment through smart card
5. Data software engineered, for cross verification of records and report generation,6. Assessment of incremental benefits through remote sensing techniques,7. Electronic muster roll with hand held PDA phones
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8. Use of GIS and GPS systems for planning, measurement, recording of work, and display of work data, asset management, area mapping, decentralised planning and monitoring
9. Electronic MIS, and
10. Electronic Fund Management System
11. A touch screen, sound & icon based system (People Information System) to enable workers to exercise their Rights themselves
12. ICT based low cost technology intervention to enhance flow of information
13. Basic literacy and Computer based literacy to enhance literacy and agricultural skills of the workers
14. Partnership with UIDAI for including MGNREGA workers in the unique identity project. MNREGA
15. The introduction of UID enabled Biometric database for capturing all the process right from registration, demand of work, issue of dated receipt, allocation of work, attendance at worksite with GPS coordinates, measurement of work and wage payments and the use of ICT for improving the over-all delivery system.
16. Biometric data so collected for generating UID number for MGNREGA beneficiaries and by the banks for payment of wages.
17. Electronic muster and measurement system in A.P
18. Electronic fund transfer in A.P.
Planning and performance monitoring
Planning and performance monitoring set the management framework within which external and internal conformance and accountability processes take place. Internal conformance and accountability needs to be aligned with, and generate the information required for, external conformance and accountability. Ineffectiveness of the internal accountability processes has lead to the emergence of external social or public accountability.
Internal and external accountability
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The NREGS has built in scheme specific internal accountability mechanisms and structures to secure adequate accountability of personnel employed as has been noticed earlier. Simiparly the programme has built in anenabling environment for the citizens and civil society to demand and secure adequate public accountability. The following monitoring mechanisms are particularly noteworthy.
Central and State Employment Guarantee Councils and District Programme Co-coordinator to and oversee implementation
Independent concurrent studies by the Centre
Monitoring by 100 Eminent Citizens
District visits by area officers of the ministry
Independent State Quality control wing
Qualitative monitoring and studies by Professional institutions
Studies by independent researchers
Performance Output Matrix Provision for third party inspections and verification field verification by external and
internal agencies Monitoring committees to monitor the progress and quality of work
Block, district, and state level officials to inspect 100 percent, 10 percent, and 2 percent of projects every year, respectively.
Civil society oversight of implementation, Census of works by NIRD.
NSSO pilot Survey in states
Information and decision support, both within and without, web based disclosure, pro active publication, electronic on line MIS, and FMs ensure that right information gets to the right people at the right time to account for decisions and performance achieved. Organizational learning
Organisations have to learn from their experience and adapt policies, processes and systems to changing circumstances. To facilitate this it is essential to provide ongoing training and support for staff to build their capacity and aid in the implementation of programmes and financial management. This is evident in this as the Government has amended the legislation in the light of experience and issue revised and new guidelines to do mid course corrections required. Specific instances are in regard to proactive publication of information, tracking of all activities,
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provision for people’s oversight, grievance redress machinery, enhancing minimum wages, streamlining payment of wages, and social audit.
Strategic planning and performance monitoring, reviews and evaluations are all essentialtools for ensuring agencies regularly ‘reality check’ their governance systems and identifypotential risks that could affect their ability to achieve outcomes. Independent professional institutional monitoring of programme in the different parts of the state, encouraging voluntary reviews by responsible personalities and authors are instances of appreciable intervention.
How well the various elements are integrated and relate to the strategic objectives of the programme largely determine overall success.
Now it remains to examine how the precepts of the programme differ from the practice in the field. Implementation deficit is the most critical aspect of ths programme.
Outlay, expenditure and outputs
The current year’s country outlay on the programme is a massive sum of Rs.40100 crores. It guarantees employment of 100 days to all rural families. Central allocation has been increasing exponentially, 46.52% in 2007-08 and by 137% in 2008-09. The expenditure on the programme as a percentage of total expenditure is of the order of 2.8%. Currently the allocation is nearly I% of the GDP. Soon, with the programme gathering momentum throughout the country, the minimum wage rate having gone up to Rs.100 from Rs.45, and the administrative bottle necks removed, it is sure to touch about 1.5% of GDP very soon.
The following statement gives year wise details of employment provided, works taken up and completed, and financial data of outlays and expenditure for the country as whole
The NCAER study of states implementation of NREGS succinctly assesses the relative performance with reference to several parameters. Table 2.27 of the study compares the overall performance of states in the implementation of the programme and ranks them with reference to 4 parametres, viz., coverage and distribution, rank in employment generation, use of funds and transparency, vigilance and social audit. With reference to the first parametre the ranking is as follows. Rajasthan, A.P., T.N, M.P, NE, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Himachal, Kerala, Orissa. The second parameter places the states in the following order. M.P, Rajasthan, N.E., Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, T.N, W.B. Karnataka, A.P, Kerala. Rajasthan, H.P, Uttarkhand, Orissa Haryana figure in that order with reference to use of funds. On the last the ranks go to T.N A.P, Kerala. Rajasthan, N.E, Haryana, Maharashtra, W. in that order.
Impact of the programme
Programme implementation of over four years has resulted in
Average personday per household 48 Days 54 Days 25 Days
Budget Outlay (In Rs Crore): 30000 39100 40100Central Release (In Rs Crore): 29939.60 33506.61 14576.96Total available fund with States [including OB]: In Rs. Crore.
37397.06 49529.99 27363.54
Expenditure (In Rs. Crore.) 27250.10 37938.16 5670.15Average wage per day Rs. 84 Rs. 91 Rs. 100Average cost per day Rs. 126 Rs. 134 Rs. 126
Total works taken up (In Lakhs): 27.75 46.01 53.17Works completed: 12.14 20.94 0.33
Water conservation: 12.79 [46%] 23.33 [51%] 26.09 [52%]Provision of Irrigation facility to land owned by SC/ST/ BPL/ S & MF and IAY benificiaries:
The major issues and problems faced by the states in the implementation of the programme can summarized under the following heads.
a) Issues of awareness
Primary problems noticed are
insufficient awareness of the rights conferred on eligible unemployed under the Act,
powerlessness of the rights holders to demand the fulfilment of their rights,
need to streamline channels for complaint,
failure to enforce fines and penalties on the duty bearers, i.e., the public servants.
b) Poor implementation
There have been serious irregularities
in the registration for house hold cards,
the issue of cards, provision of employment,
in the payment of wages
in the choice of works involving serious violations of the provisions of the law and the guidelines
incorrect reporting of data
serious data manipulation of registration, provision of work, the proportion of the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes and women registrants employed in official data when crossed checked with reference to social audit figures, N.S.S data,
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independent studies and evaluations throwing serious doubt on the credibility of the official statistics
This has very serious implications in relation to scope for wide spread malpractices and serious fraud. Incorrect MIS is hardly the tool with which to check the performance of the states and the field staff. An extreme example is the fact that there are instances where the total number of job cards issued happens to be more than the number of households
Delay in the issue and non issue of cards,
holding of cards by public functionaries,
delay in providing works,
non provision and delay in giving work,
nonpayment of compensation in lieu thereof,
low level of actual employment provided, including discrimination against women, weaker sections, and handicapped,
slippages in the execution of works,
failure to give wages in time,
payment of lower wages than mandated and misappropriation of the rest,
lapses in the maintenance of muster rolls, and measurement books,
failure to publish information in time,
poor verification of works, muster rolls, and measurement books,
failure to do internal audit,
lapses in holding of monitoring committees,
non conduct or farcical conduct of meetings of gram sabha,
failure or inadequacy of social audit
in varying degree from state to state.
c) Lapses in the choice of works
Failure to have a shelf of works based on local natural resource endowment,
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Taking up works unapproved, technically and administratively,
Poor selection of works
Substandard quality of assets created
are major issues requiring careful scrutiny.
d) Staffing issues
Non assignment of staff in the field to the specified scale and posting of inadequately trained staff in the field is another serious issue. This also raises the question of adequacy of the 4% establishment cost stipulated by the Centre. It is relevant to note here that A.P. which has among the best administered programmes in the county, the administration cost comes to 10%. There is also the need to train the Village political functionaries to enable them to discharge the functions devolving on the Gram Panchayats.
e) Managerial bottlenecks noticed include
non preparation of district Schedule of rates,
non maintenance of wage material ratio,
non provision of work site facilities,
delay in release of finds, nonpayment of wages in time,
taking up works through proxy contractors,
commission system,
occasional employment of machinery
f) Corruption in the Programme.
Corruption in this massive programme takes the shape of bribery for job cards, fraud, falsification of data and accounts, misappropriation, inflated estimates incorrect measurement,
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use of unauthenticated measurement books, billing for non-existent works, fictitious attendance, fudged muster rolls, false measurement, delayed payment of wages, under payment, non-payment, poor quality of work, excess rates for procured items, and local capture.
Loss on account of detected cases of misappropriation in A.P. alone amounts to Rs.860 million. Undetected cases are likely to be substantial. So far about 1428 field assistants and 144 technical assistants have been dismissed, 1150 officers have been suspended, 203 civil suits for recovery filed, and about 600 criminal cases have been filed for criminal prosecution.
Second generation issues involving prompt release of funds as and when required, region specific calendar for works programme, ensuring convergence of schemes taken up with projects under implementation to make the programme really effective, and creation of a need based shelf of projects, are initiates called for in this area.
Way Forward
The foregoing analysis of the governance framework of the NREGA reveals that in spite of the care and attention paid to details concerning every aspect of planning, programming, implementation, monitoring, audit and evaluation, the programme suffers from serious implementation deficit, which needs to be filled adequately and expeditiously, in order to ensure that the lapses, capacity gaps, inefficiencies, leakage, and corruption are minimized to the optimum. The way forward is to move in the direction of meeting the institutional gaps in staffing, the training needs to build capacity of personnel, systems to report accurate data, prevent data manipulation, strengthen proactive disclosure mechanisms, streamline monitoring, more active participatory planning and selection of works, dovetailing with ongoing plan programmes for creation of durable assets, greater adversarial civil society activity for monitoring and social audit of implementation, and more streamlined and effective complaints and grievance redress, whistle blower protection mechanisms, strict enforcement of punitive provisions to bring the corrupt to book, through disciplinary action, criminal prosecution, civil recovery, and confiscation of disproportionate assts go through corrupt means.
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The Governance framework outlined in this lecture is inspired by the publications – 1) Building Better Governance 2007 - Australian Public
Service Commission. 2) Public Sector Governance –Better practice Guide- Frameworks, Processes and Practices- National Audit office Australia.
