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NREGA Project - Gumma Block, Gajapati Dist., Orissa |
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Report of Audit by AID-India December 5, 2006 Image Link On December 5, construction work of a cement road was ongoing in Badakolakote village, belonging to the tribal Gumma Block of Gajapati District and we took the opportunity to talk to the people working on the site. The VLL/Supervisor Jisiya Bhunya (left person in left picture) showed a small notebook tucked on the branch of a nearby tree. Though that day’s attendance was not yet marked in it, we cross checked the previous 2-3 days attendance. The work is being completed in two phases of about 7 days each and we also checked their prior phase 1 attendance and wages received. Here the adivasi men and women are aware that they receive the same minimum wage.
Meanwhile the Panchayat Secretary Jacob Gumango (centre person) took us to see the terracing/stone bunding done to prevent soil erosion on a hillock in the same village. It was quite impressive and he showed two bunds, and said that the cumulative length totaled about 1500 mts.
 (The budget approved was Rs 3 lakhs for 1220 mts.) Considering that Gumma block is beautiful with lots of hills and forest, with patches of terrace farming, such stone work which is labour intensive seems very useful and there is lot of potential to do such works in this region that will also maintain the ecology. Payments not made: In the Badakolakote Panchayat office we learnt that wages amounting to Rs 1-1.5 lakh for the terracing/bunding work for soil conservation that was executed in October were not yet paid to the villagers as the panchayat had no money. Since NREGA requires wages to be paid on a weekly basis (and in worst case within 15 days), the labourers are entitled to an additional compensation as per Schedule II, Sec 30, of NREG Act: “In case the payment of wages is not made within period specified under the Scheme, the labourers shall be entitled to receive payment of compensation as per the provisions of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936 (4 of 1936).” The Sarpanch, Secretary and Executive Officer said they had made several requests to the block office requesting release of funds for all the works being executed. They showed us their recent letter to Block Development Officer requesting release of Rs 8 lakhs for various works done. On the way to Badakolakote, we had stopped in Latur Gadagada, another village in this block where a road is being constructed in front of a church. There also two workers Simiya Gumango and Ishak Gumango had told us that some of the wages were not paid as funds were not available. Muster Rolls Not Available at Worksite: The mandatory agenda as per the NREGA “Operational Guidelines” issued by Ministry of Rural Development, includes availability of muster rolls at worksite: “Were the muster rolls available for public scrutiny at all times at the worksite?” (-- question emphasized in transparency section 11.6.2E of Operational Guidelines ). The answer to this question is a resounding “No! They were not available.” Muster rolls are numbered sheets issued by the Program Officer to Gram Panchayats or Executing Agencies for the purpose of recording the daily attendance at worksite and payment of wages based on the attendance. Notebooks that are actually being used at the worksite to record attendance, both in Gumma Block and Gosani block, are not issued by the Program Officer and hence are not muster rolls. In the ongoing cement road work at Badakolikote we saw at the worksite on Dec 5, 2006 that the attendance was being taken on note-books and the muster rolls (authorized by Program Officer) were not available at worksite for public scrutiny. Muster Rolls Do Not Tally With Attendance Dates Marked in Notebooks: attendance where more people and days of work are shown, money can be made and pocketedIt appears that notebooks are used openly at worksites. However muster rolls are later written in secrecy and there could be fictitious names (for example names of those who did not work) and additional work days added to siphon off money. For example by paying workers based on notebook attendance, but collecting money from government based on muster roll We found the following discrepancies between note books on which attendance was actually taken by VLL/contractor/supervisor and muster rolls in the stone bunding for soil conservation project:
1) While notebooks had workdays written clearly, in muster rolls the month and year information was sometimes forgotten. Dates such as 1, 2, 3, 4…31 are there but the month (or period) and year this attendance happened is anyone’s guess. 2) There was a bunch of muster rolls totaling about Rs 1-1.5 lakh, for which the payments to labourers are told to be pending. In all these muster rolls names of people and dates they were present were marked, but month and period information is missing!!
3) When we asked for month information we were shown attendance note books that the supervisor got from his house, and for names on muster roll we were shown a few “present symbols” against in the note books written in Sep and Oct 2006. However the muster rolls and notebook did not tally – for example as per the notebooks the first day of work was Jul 27 but in muster rolls the first day was Aug 1. 4) Muster rolls come from Program Officer with a date of issue stamped on them. This date is not visible in all the muster rolls and in many muster rolls the date of issue of muster roll is a later date than the attendance period! For example in Pic 1 at the end of this document, is a muster roll issued on Nov 1 2006, but it is for work done in October 2006. Thus it is clear that this muster roll could not have been used at the worksite for entering attendance! 5) Some muster rolls had consecutive days marked as Sundays. Online Information Doesn’t Tally with Muster Rolls!! The information from muster rolls is entered into online muster rolls which can be accessed online at http://www.nrega.nic.in. We were surprised that in almost every online muster roll we checked, some names (20%) are missing. These errors in data entry should be monitored via periodic sample checks by the government and training should be givn to improve the quality of data entry. | Terracing Wall for Soil Erosion Work Code 2424002002/OP-442 Badakolakote, Gajapati District, Orissa | | Muster roll No. | # of workers entered in “actual” muster roll | # of workers entered in online muster roll | 8696 | 5 | 4 | 8697 | 10 | 7 | 8698 | 10 | 9 | 7655 | 10 | 7 |
We have put the word ‘actual’ in quotes in the table because even these muster rolls are not an accurate record of the attendance as discussed in previous sections. As a result of inaccuracy in attendance the online muster roles also show much lesser amounts disbursed than “actual” muster rolls. Job Cards Not in Possession of Beneficiary: Like in Gosani block, even in Gumma block, the job cards have been taken by the panchayats. But these should always be in possession of the worker and any entry by panchayat secretary on number of days worked, should be made in the presence of the job card holder. It is highly irregular for Panchayats and VLL/Supervisor to take the people’s job cards even for a single day – but months have passed and they have not been returned. Excuse given is that payments are pending. If job cards are kept with the Panchayat and not available with people they cannot apply for work as job card information needs to be entered in work applications. Thus their right to work under NREGA is taken away, each day the job card is not in their possession. Recommendations to Collector and DPC (NREGA) of Gajapati District: 1) It would be useful to send a circular informing all Panchayats that attendance should be marked directly on muster rolls authorized by Program Officer and that they should be available at worksites for inspection at all times. Panchayats should be made aware that corrective action will be taken if attendance is being recorded on Notebooks instead of authorized muster rolls at worksite 2) It would be useful to provide VLLs/contractors/supervisors with pads and clips so they can use these as support while writing, since unlike note books, muster rolls are individual pages. Also please provide a transparent plastic envelope in which they can put the muster roll along with pad so it will not be damaged at work site. This envelope can have NREGA imprinted on it and the muster roll will be completely visible through the transparent plastic even when it is inside the envelope. 3) Provide training, as needed, on how to enter attendance directly on muster rolls. In many cases month and period information is not written properly. Those absent should be marked “absent” and blanks should not be there in muster rolls where they can be later changed to “present”. 4) Create awareness via posters and village-level meetings, where not only representatives, but the village public is invited, on usage of muster rolls for marking attendance and on other aspects of NREGA. 5) Please issue a circular to all Panchayats urging them to immediately return the job cards to people. Several Panchayats are in possession of people’s job cards. People cannot apply for more work without their cards and their rights under NREGA are being transgressed. 6) Panchayat secretaries should be informed that number of days worked and names of people from the family who worked, must be entered in a job card in presence of the job card holder and cards should not be taken by Panchayat secretaries, ward members or supervisors/VLLs/contractors. Penalties should be imposed if cards are not in possession of the card holder at time of audit by civil society groups or government officials or if complaint is made by job card holder or village people. CONCLUSIONS We thank the collector of Gajapati District for suggesting that we should visit the Badakolakote village to assess the NREGA work done there. This work appeared to us to be refreshingly better than the one in Gosani block that we had earlier reported on. However owing to the fact that significant amounts of payment have not been made to the workers for work done several months ago, job cards are not in the possession of the workers and so people do not know how many days have been entered as worked in their cards, and muster rolls worth more than Rs 1 lakh have no month or period information written on them, another visit is required to complete this report. Therefore we have reported significant discrepancies in the process and we hope this will help the government take corrective action in the way NREGA is currently being executed in Gajapati district. Having met some of the workers and panchayat members (pic. of panchayat office) as well as supervisors in Badakolakote, we believe that there is potential for a future NREGA project in this tribal village to become a model work that the Gajapti District can be proud of. For this to happen it is important that notebooks are replaced by authorized muster rolls at work site. It is a thankless job even for a conscientious supervisor to transfer information from notebooks to muster rolls as there are tens and in this case hundreds of workers, in work spanning several months. Considering that even a better educated data entry computer operator made 20% error in transferring information from muster rolls to the online version, a village person making entries in note books in free format, can also make mistakes in transferring them to muster rolls. Such errors are worth lakhs of rupees of public money as each panchayat executes work worth tens of lakhs. For supervisors and panchayat members who are not conscientious, the notebook system is a breeding ground for corruption. 
Pic 1: Muster roll 65115: This muster roll for terracing (soil conservation) work was issued on Nov 1 (see stamp on top right), but we were told it was for work done in September/October. Sundays marked provide a clue since Oct 1 is a Sunday. However there is no direct information on the month or period for which the attendance is marked. This should have been written on dotted lines above the table. There are Rs 1-1.5 lakh worth of such muster rolls with no month/period information on them. Payment on these muster rolls hasn’t been made yet. Blank spaces in muster roll should have been filled with absent symbol. 
Pic 3: Attendance notebook above shows the terracing (soil conservation) work to have started on 26/7/2006 while muster rolls begin on Aug 1. Note the line in notebook drawn between 16/8/2006 and 18/8/2006 that goes down. This line has been drawn since first 12 days of work of first person (done between 26 July and Aug 16) are entered as 12 days work in muster roll of Aug 1- Aug 15. Consider now the 4th, 6th and 7th people. They were all absent on 15th Aug 2006. So the line which was initially drawn straight was bent to accommodate a later date, ie 18/8/2006 in muster roll of Aug 1-15 (only for these 3 people) so they can also be marked as having worked 12 days in that muster roll. Now the 9th person took more holidays and that line is bent even more to accommodate dates upto 25/8/2006, but that is still only 10 days work and so supervisor checks the next page of notebook to see if anymore work days are there that can be accommodated in Aug 1-15 muster roll for this person’s work. 
Pic 4: The 12th person in note book of Pic 3 who worked on 27/7 is second person in muster roll (pictured above) and is shown to have worked on Aug 1. The muster roll also has present and absent marked on Aug 31 while it is for period 1/8 to 15/8. There are consecutive days marked as Sundays. (note that the script of the tribal dialect Saura spoken in this panchayat is the English alphabet!! So names in note book are in a script that looks to us like English, but is known to VLLs/supervisors as the script of their native language Saura that they write in! However the official muster roll (pic 1) done behind the scenes has people’s names written in Oriya). Report by AID-India, Orissa. Contacts: Pramod, Dhanada, Ajay, Ravi and Aravinda. PS: We have used the terminology VLL/Contractor/Supervisor as these are names used in the villages, but actually there are no contractors assigned officially for these works and all people including those taking attendance are paid via their Job cards under NREGA. |
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 Break the shackles
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