Ombudsmen of states on NREGA failed, need central body: Jairam

New Delhi, Jul 18 (PTI) Within a week of taking charge
of Rural Development Ministry, Jairam Ramesh on Monday said
the Ombudsmen set up by states for supervision of NREGA have
failed in their duty and that the Act requires to be amended
to establish such a body at central level.
Ramesh emphasised the need for "greater accountability"
with regard to implementation of the NREGA (National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act), asserting that two-thirds of the
Rural Development Ministry's total expenditure is being spent
for implementing it.
"Offices of the Ombudsman established by the state
governments failed to address the grievances. Ombudsman must
be appointed by the Centre. We must have a permanent
institutional mechanism with field staff to ensure
accountability in the huge expenditure in implementing the
NREGA," Ramesh told PTI.
"We may have to amend the NREGA Act" to set up a central
level ombudsman, he said about the move that could be
protested by states.
Asked whether the states would protest establishing a
Central level monitoring system, he seemed to be unperturbed.
He, however, said he was not in favour of stopping the
NREGA payments to the states.
"I don't like to stop programme of the Rural Development
Ministry. I am not in favour of stopping payments. That is an
extreme step," he said.

It was in 2009, the Central Government directed the
state governments to set up offices of Ombudsman to ensure
transparency and accountability in implementation of the NREGA
Act.
Ramesh said he wanted to "build a system for a tighter
financial accountability" in implementation of all the
flagship programmes of the Ministry including NREGA, PMGSY,
NRLM etc and would consult Comptroller and Auditor General
(CAG) Vinod Rai in this regard on Wednesday.
"To create a fine system, I will also convene a meeting
of all retired CAGs and CVCs soon to discuss how to bring
accountability in our expenditure," the Rural Development
Minister said.