Welfare schemes' auditing may start from March-end

NEW DELHI: The rural development ministry has moved a step closer to real-time evaluation of its Rs 76,000-crore development budget by working out the details of a mechanism that will audit welfare programmes as they are implemented.

An official close to the development said the mechanism, called the Concurrent Evaluation Office, will become functional latest by March end. It will be established through an executive order and report to the rural development minister.

Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh had proposed the mechanism to make welfare schemes more effective. The Cabinet had cleared the proposal in November.

Real-time evaluation through an independent mechanism will help not just identify the bottlenecks and enable the government to address problems even as the programmes are being implemented.

Leakages, delays and uneven implementation beset welfare schemes like NREGA, blunting benefits to the poor. The idea is to assess the effectiveness of the programmes and schemes during the implementation stage to enable government to simultaneously address the shortcomings.

An accredited network of reputed institutions will carry out the real-time evaluations. For the first three years, the network will comprise institutions supported by the Indian Council for Social Science Research, Indian Institutes of Management and other institutes of national importance.

The Concurrent Evaluation Office will identify the components that need to be audited, design the terms of reference for the evaluation and identify the institution most suited to the task. It will also guide the implementation of the suggestions drawn up on the basis of the evaluation.

To ensure it doesn't become another bottleneck, the real-time auditing office has been kept small-a chief executive officer, two programme managers and four to five consultants. The chief executive will be an economist of global repute, who will be appointed for three years with the possibility of a two-year extension.