Telangana completes online audit of gram panchayats

Apart from becoming the only State in the country to have completed the process, Telangana government has also uploaded the reports online

Hyderabad: Telangana is the only State in the country to have successfully completed 100 per cent online auditing of 12,769 gram panchayats (GPs) for 2020-21. Apart from conducting the online audit, the State government has also uploaded the reports online.

The Central government, to ensure transparency and accountability, introduced the online audit of gram panchayats from 2019-20 financial year. The move also facilitates curbing misuse of funds in local bodies.

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While Telangana achieved 100 per cent online audit of gram panchayats, 16 other States are yet to commence online audit of their rural local bodies. The remaining States managed to achieve an average of just 13 per cent online audit. After Telangana, Andhra Pradesh is in the second place followed by Tamil Nadu. There are 2,56,561 gram panchayats in the country and of these, online auditing has been conducted in 32,820 panchayats.

Last year too, Telangana topped the rankings in the country in online auditing of gram panchayats. Union Minister for Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Narendra Singh Tomar said Telangana has emerged as a role model for the entire country in conducting online audit of rural local bodies and lauded the measures taken by the State government, Telangana State Audit Director Marthineni Venkateswar Rao said.

In the 2019-20 audit year, of the 12,769 gram panchayats in the State, online audit was conducted in 5,174 gram panchayats and reports were generated accordingly, he said. For the 2020-21 financial year, online audit of all the 12,769 gram panchayats was conducted. The State government also suggested some measures to the Union Ministry of Panchayat Raj and Rural Development to address a few technical aspects in the system, he said.

Some States have sought Telangana government’s support in conducting the online auditing. Last year, a few officials from Karnataka participated in a training session while officials from Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan were regularly interacting with the State officials, he added.

Auditing of mandal parishads under way

Hyderabad: After successfully completing the online audit of 12,769 gram panchayats, the State Audit Department has now taken up online auditing of mandal parishads and zilla parishads. There are 540 mandals across the State, and so far, online audit of 170 has been completed and efforts are on to complete the audit of remaining mandals at the earliest. Similarly, zilla parishads’ audit was also under progress, TS Audit Director Marthineni Venkateswar Rao said.

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