Bhopal: Serious irregularities like non-submission of utilisation certificates and delay in payment of wages to beneficiaries among others have come to notice in an official report on the implementation of MGNREGA scheme in Madhya Pradesh.
It was also found that the state government was not following necessary budgetary procedures while seeking grant from the Centre under the flagship programme. It was noticed during the inspection in eight districts that the ratio of expenditures for labour and materials have not been followed and more than 40 per cent of the amount of Rs 19.5 crore has been spent on purchasing, the report by Accountant General (AG) office said.
As per guidelines, a ratio of 60:40 has to be followed while spending money on labour and material under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act Scheme. From 2010 till March 2012, the State Government had spent about Rs 162 crore on purchase of material for the implementation of the scheme, it said.
The report found that an extra amount of Rs 371.38 crore was lying with the Madhya Pradesh National Rural Employment Guarantee Council in addition to about Rs 1,543 crore with the district administrations.
"States should demand the amount which is required by them. They should keep this in mind while making budgetary proposals seeking grants for the scheme," the report, which was accessed by social activist Ajay Dubey under RTI, said.
MGNREGA guarantees job of at least 100 days for an individual living below the poverty line. It ensures a minimum wage of Rs 100 for the beneficiary. The cost of the scheme is shared between the Centre and the state in the ratio of 90:10.
The report prepared by the State AG office, a distant arm of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), found delay of up to 90 days in payment of wages to labourers.
During 2011-12, implementation period of the scheme, an amount of Rs 85 crore to be paid to 7,37,686 labourers as wages was given between 15 days to 90 days "which is against the government's directives", it said.
It was also found that utilisation certificates on money spent by various government and private departments as part of the schemes were not yet received. The utilisation certificates of an amount of Rs 64.37 lakh was pending as on March 2012, the report noted.
About 30 district administrations have also spent Rs 36.50 crore on administration works, in excess to a cap of six per cent expenditure of the budget on such work.
"Excess expenditure under administration work head shows that the Centre's directions were not being adhered to and the scheme was not properly followed," it said.
There has also been instances where the state government has shown wrong amount of expenditure and utilisation which is "baseless and erroneous", it said.
In the utilisation certificates sent to the Centre for 2011-12, the State Council had shown expendtiure of Rs 3,439 crore. Whereas, it had shown Rs 3,320 crore as expenditure in a Management Information System (electronic system for filing details of grant spent by the State). In total, there has been a difference of about Rs 119 crore, the report said.
The audit report for 2011-12 was submitted to the council in February for comments and necessary action. "There has been a lot of irregularities in the
implementation of the scheme in the state. We have demanded a CBI inquiry to check corruption in the scheme. Both the state and the Centre have not agreed to our demands," Dubey said.
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