Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh announced here on Sunday that the Comptroller-and-Auditor-General (CAG) will be conducting a performance audit of the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in 12 heavy-spending states.
Incidentally, four of these heavy-spending states are BJP-ruled states — Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Karnataka — and are going to polls in the next 18 months.
Mr Ramesh was addressing a press conference at the state Congress headquarters here on Sunday afternoon.
He said it will be for the first time that the CAG will be conducting the performance and expenditure audit in 12 “heavy-spending” states that account for 85 per cent of the funds spent in the country towards implementing the rural employment guarantee programme. He said corruption is there, irrespective of parties in power, and the problem cannot be wished away in a scheme involving an expenditure of over `4,000 crores.
The minister praised the Andhra Pradesh government for coming down heavily against corruption linked with the implementation of the MGNREGA and described Uttar Pradesh as the worst performing state on this count.
Mr Ramesh said that the Andhra Pradesh government has managed to dig out MANREGA-related scam of `130 crores, of which `30 crores have already been recovered. When it comes to tackling the problem of corruption linked with this scheme, he said, “We cannot force the states to act in this matter. On receiving complaints, we have to refer them back to the state governments for follow-up action,” he pointed out.