Dr. Y. Vishnu Vardhan 1st Year PGCommunity Medicine.

In Public HealthSOCIAL AUDIT

MY PLAN IS… to answer these questions.

WHAT?WHAT?

?

HOW?HOW?

WHEN?WHEN? SO?SO?

WHY?WHY? WHICH?WHICH?

WHAT?

Audit- 3 types:

1. Government Audit

2. People’s Audit

3. Social Audit

Audit means- A Systematic & Independent examination of data, records or operations for a stated purpose.

But when it comes to SOCIAL AUDIT…

An Ongoing process by which the potential beneficiaries & other stake holders of an activity or project are involved from planning to monitoring & evaluation of that activity or project.

With an Aim of “Effective implementation & Control of irregularities”

- Assess the outcomes more than outputs - Complements Financial Audit (SA+FA= True Picture) - Kind of performance Audit.

BASIC PRINCIPLES of SA are…

1. Transparency: To give people full access to all relevant information.

RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT, 2005. (Foundation of Social Audit)

- Allows anyone to access information regarding the function of a scheme/project by filing a special request.

- PIO.

2. Participation: Entitlement for all affected persons to participate in process of decision making.

3. Accountability: Immediate & Public answerability to all concerned people on relevant actions.

4. Comparability.

5. Verification.

6. Disclosure.

1. Assessing Physical & Financial gaps.

2. Creating awareness among beneficiaries.

3. Increased efficacy & effectiveness of programs.

4. Promote public-private partnerships

5. Increased public participation at all stages.

6. Prevent abuse of funds & Power.

WHY?

SOCIAL AUDIT does analysis of

Economic Components

Political Components

Environmental Components

Health & Education Components

Social Components.

WHEN? Conducted over the life span of a scheme/project, i.e.Planning-Implementation-Monitoring- Evaluation. For instance, in the case of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) social audit was taken up at:

To ensure that the GP Plan is need-based covering productive/Investments.

To ensure that estimates are proper and are in tune with the approved quantum of work

To ensure that wages are paid rightly, properly and to right people

To ensure that quality of work is in tune with quantity and estimated cost

PLANNING STAGE

PREPARATION STAGE

IMPLEMENTING STAGE

AFTER COMPLETION

HOW?

METHODOLOGY OF SOCIAL AUDIT in SIX STEPS

Step 1: DEFINING BOUNDARIES.

Identify the program or activity, which is to be audited and understand why it is selected.

Understand the organization, the focus and context of social audit and then by framing the objectives for social audit.

The Objectives of social audit should be relevant to the strategy, realistic about what can be achieved.

Step 2: IDENTIFY STAKEHOLDERS.

Identify the stakeholders to be consulted in the audit and determining how often these stakeholders could be included in the process.

The selection of representatives for consultation is to be unambiguous and transparent and should cover maximum stakeholder groups.

Step 3: DATA COLLECTION.

Gathering secondary information is very important in the process of social audit & it is inevitable for making social audit reports.

All the information and data pertaining to the schemes will be collected. It is important to see clearly what is the use of information that is going to be collected.

Step 4: SA FINDINGS & VERIFICATION.

Once the findings in the SA is consolidated and organized, Verification should be done to understandIf everything is done as planned.

Care should be taken in recording the findings as a small mistake could leave the processes of the audit in disarray

Step 5: PUBLIC MEETINGS. The main purpose of public meeting is to obtain public testimony or comment.

The key findings of the audit will be discussed in the public meeting and the concerned government officials will respond to the key issues raised in such a meeting.

Step 6: INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF SA.

Impact is the greatest and most sustainable when social audit process is systematically implemented by a civil society, state or by any other organization.

The replication of social audit on regular basis is one such process, which will force the state to incorporate this as an integral part of the government

With an Example…SA of MID-DAY MEAL SCHEME.

8,000 crore budget is allocated for 12 crore children. Still a lot is to be achieved in quality. (Routine menu, No eggs & fruits, No proper tools etc,.)

Community monitoring by parents was proposed.

Training was conducted by a team on how to audit it.

Through Gram Sabha, Mandal Resource formed a team of 5-8 persons.

They visited schools and examined the records. Entries were compared with actual verifications.

This data was latter verified by an external source on any discrepancies.

At the end, they presented a report in Gram Sabha.

Village communities questioned Head Masters, Cooks on any discrepancies & valid action was taken.

End Result:

Several positive decisions were taken.

Identified problems such as Caste discrimination, Bad infrastructure, Lack of plates & Utensils, Not using stock registers etc.

TOOLS OF SOCIAL AUDIT

1. JAN AUDIT MANCH: Periodic review of all aspects of SA in public meetings.

2. CITIZEN REPORT CARDS: Provides an assessment of citizens’ level of satisfaction with regard to the city’s public services and ranked public service agencies (water, power, municipal services, transport, housing, telephones, banks and hospitals) in terms of their service performance.

4. PETS: World bank introduced to examine leakages on allocated budgets.

5. HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS

6. COMMUNITY BASED MONITORING.

3. CITIZEN CHARTERS: Defines what services will be rendered, how & when they are provided, & who is responsible for the project.

SO, WHAT IS THE CONCLUSION?

SA is being recognized as an important tool to improve the program performance monitoring. Its time to use this approach in health sector too.

REFERENCES

3. Social Audit: A Tool for Performance Improvement and Outcome Measurement. Hyderabad: Centre for Good Governance; 2005.

2. Nandan D, Mishra SK, Jain M, Singh D, Verma M, Sethi V. Social audit for community action: A tool to initiate community actions for reducing child mortality. Indian J Community Med. 2005;30:78–80.

4. Social Audit from NREGA. Available from nrega.nic.in/circular/So_Audit_I.pdf

5. Social Audit of MID Day meal scheme In AP by Dipa sinha. Available @ www.righttofoodindia.org/.../mdm_social_ audit_andhra_pradesh_july29

1. Monika Puri, Chandrakant Lahariya Indian J Community Med. 2011 Jul-Sep; 36(3): 174–177. doi: 10.4103/0970-0218.86515

THANK YOUFor Not Yawning..!

REFERENCES

3. Social Audit: A Tool for Performance Improvement and Outcome Measurement. Hyderabad: Centre for Good Governance; 2005.

2. Nandan D, Mishra SK, Jain M, Singh D, Verma M, Sethi V. Social audit for community action: A tool to initiate community actions for reducing child mortality. Indian J Community Med. 2005;30:78–80.

4. Social Audit from NREGA. Available from nrega.nic.in/circular/So_Audit_I.pdf

5. Social Audit of MID Day meal scheme In AP by Dipa sinha. Available @ www.righttofoodindia.org/.../mdm_social_ audit_andhra_pradesh_july29

1. Monika Puri, Chandrakant Lahariya Indian J Community Med. 2011 Jul-Sep; 36(3): 174–177. doi: 10.4103/0970-0218.86515