An oft-repeated criticism against the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme is its alleged high rate of corruption. But the scheme’s inbuilt mechanism to combat such corruption — the social audit units meant to detect any cases of malpractice — has not been backed by the effective recovery of embezzled funds.
As per the statistics available with the Union Rural Development Ministry in the ongoing financial year, less than 14% of the amount flagged by the auditors has been recovered so far. The figures for the previous financial years are equally dismal.
