Social audit

Dr. Y. Vishnu Vardhan
1st Year PG
CommunityMedicine.

MY PLAN IS…
to answer these questions.
WHAT?
?
HOW?
WHEN? SO?
WHY? 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 understand
If 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

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