CAG finds 48% of MGNREGS job cards unused in Karnataka

It assessed planning, financial management, employment generation, execution of works, and monitoring mechanisms.

Who it concerns: Government of Karnataka, specifically the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department and local Panchayat Raj Institutions implementing MGNREGS.

What the auditor found

• Delay in release of funds by the State Government resulted in penal interest of ₹36.26 crore.
• Inadmissible expenditure of ₹32.78 crore was incurred under the administrative head of the Scheme.
• ₹35.10 crore in wage and material transactions were pending due to Aadhaar-based payment rejections.
• ₹3.29 crore in delayed wage compensation was rejected by Programme Officers on incorrect grounds.
• Aadhaar mapping was pending for 3.11 lakh workers out of 84.98 lakh active workers as of March 2024.
• Job cards were pending for 34,499 beneficiaries who had applied for jobs.
• Only 5% of households received the guaranteed 100 days of employment; the majority received only 1 to 30 days.
• Contracts for outsourcing manpower were extended unauthorisedly without fresh tenders, leading to excess service charges.
• Recruitment of contractual staff did not follow State reservation policies for women, SCs, STs, and disabled individuals.
• Vendors were hired and paid for manual labour components, denying employment opportunities to beneficiaries contrary to Scheme Guidelines.

Also in the document

• CAG found that the demand for employment from registered households did not exceed 48% of issued job cards, indicating low uptake or access issues.
• CAG noted that NREGASoft (the management information system) lacked provisions to record data for vulnerable groups such as nomadic tribals and HIV-positive persons, leading to their exclusion.
• CAG observed that works were reported as completed even after incurring less than 5% of the sanctioned estimate.
• CAG found that Social Audit observations were sometimes closed without ensuring the remittance of recovered amounts.