Organisational Chart

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Government of Maharashtra

Commissionerate

Divisional and District

Social Audit Unit (SAU)

The Mahatma Gandhi NREGA gives the Gram Sabha the right to Social Audit of all works and expenditures. This includes facilitation of the social audit through independent Social Audit Units, complete access to all records- online and offline, and pro-active disclosure through wall writings.

The Section 17 of the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA, 2005 mandates the Gram Sabha to conduct Social Audits as under:

(1) The Gram Sabha shall monitor the execution of works within the Gram Panchayat.

(3) The Gram Sabha shall conduct regular social audits of all the projects under the Scheme taken up within the Gram Panchayat.

(4) The Gram Panchayat shall make available all relevant documents including the muster rolls, bills, vouchers, measurement books, copies of sanction orders and other connected book of account and papers to the Gram Sabha for the purpose of conducting Social Audit.”

The Government of Maharashtra State Governments had established an independent Social Audit Units (SAU) named as Maharashtra State Society for Social Audit and Transparency (MS-SSAT) to facilitate Gram Sabha/ Ward Sabha in conducting social audits of works taken up under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA within the Gram Panchayat. The Social Audit is to be conducted in every Gram Panchayat (GP) at least once in six months, involving a mandatory review of all aspects in the records from the laborers and cross-verifying works at the site.

Overall, the Social Audit Unit is an effective means for ensuring transparency, participation, consultation, and accountability under MGNREGA. The process of Social Audit combines people’s participation and monitoring with the requirements of the audit discipline.

Ombudsperson

Under the para 30 of Schedule I of the MGNREGA mandates that there shall be an Ombudsperson for each District for receiving grievances, enquiring into, and passing awards as per Guidelines. The Ombudsperson has to dispose of and passing of awards for the received grievances within 30 days as per the norms laid down.

The cases of denial of entitlements as brought out through social audits shall also be referred to the Ombudsman by the Social Audit Unit. The Ombudsman shall be responsible for registering the same as suo moto complaints for disposal and passing of awards within 30 days from the date of filing of the compliant as per the norms laid down.

The district list of ombudspersons appointed in the state is available here.

Implementation Mechanism

• For the effective implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), at the state level, an Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) Division is working under Planning Department, Government of Maharashtra.
  The EGS Division is headed by the officer of the rank of Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra. The MGNREGS is under implementation whole of the state except for Mumbai City and Mumbai Suburban Districts..
• To make the dynamic implementation and effective monitoring control of the MGNREGS in the state, an office of Commissionerate has been established at Nagpur which is headed by the Commissioner (MGNREGS). The Commissionerate is carrying out functions like Annual planning of the scheme for the entire state, Annual Labour Budget of all districts, distribution of funds to districts, online submission of MIS reports to the Central Government, etc.
• To have better coordination between Government and District Administration, the Divisional Commissioner has been authorized for the implementation and monitoring of MGNREGS in the state. At present, the Divisional Commissioner is present in Six Administrative Divisions of Konkan, Amravati, Nashik, Nagpur, Pune, and Aurangabad. A post of Deputy Commissioner (EGS) is created to assist the Divisional Commissioner Offices in the State.
• Since the implementation of MGNREGS is directly done in the districts, all thirty-four District Collectors have been given the responsibility of District Programme Coordinators (DPC) who is responsible for the implementation and monitoring of the scheme, planning, allocation of funds, administrative sanction, and inspection of works, etc.
  To assist the DPC and execute its responsibilities, a Deputy Collector (EGS) is appointed in all of the districts. Since 50% of the expenditure of MGNREGS-Maharashtra is to be done through Gram Panchayat, therefore the Chief Executive officer -Zilla Parishad (CEO-ZP) is given the responsibilities of Joint District Programme Coordinator (Jt.DPC) in the state.
  To Assist the CEO-ZP, in 12 Districts a post of Deputy CEO (NREGA) is created. The important responsibility given to Deputy CEO (NREGA) is District Programme Coordination, approval of the Labour Budget, Administrative Sanction, Inspection of works, etc.
• The responsibility for the effective implementation of MGNREGS at the Taluka level is given to Programme Officer (Tehsildar) and Assistant Programme officer (Block Development Officer). For the work executed through the government departments, the responsibility of giving administrative approval, monitoring, payment of wages, social audit, grievance redressal, etc. is entrusted to the Program Officer (Tehsildar) at the taluka level.
  For the Work implemented through Gram Panchayats, the responsibility of giving administrative approval, monitoring, payment of wages, an inspection of works, payment of wages, preparation of planning of works, public awareness of MGRNEGS, social audit, grievance redressal, etc is entrusted to the Assistant Program Officer (Block Development Office) at taluka level.
• The works of the Forest Department, Social Forest Division, Public Work Department, Agriculture, and other departments are also implemented under MGNREGS through Gram Panchayat.
• The Gram Panchayat is a major agency of Implementation under the MGRNEGS. The Gram Panchayat within its jurisdiction has given the responsibility of registration of labor, issuance and distribution of Job cards, attendance register, providing work on demand, planning of work, labor budget, creation of permanent assets, public awareness of the scheme, etc. The responsibility to execute the function is given to Gram Sevak who is assisted by Gram Rojgar Sevak in the Gram Panchayat.