Patna, (Bihar Times): The Rs 12,000-crore National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme barely covered 3.2 per cent of the registered households in the year between February 2006 and March 2007.

Under this scheme households in 200 of the poorest districts in the country were promised a maximum of 100 days employment at wages not below Rs 60 per day. But a six-month performance audit conducted in the field under the aegis of the Comptroller & Auditor General of the NREGS in 513 Gram Panchayats spread across 68 randomly selected districts from 26 states confirms that the average employment provided under the scheme was just 18 days.

Instead of 200 district the scheme now covers 330 districts and from April this year will extend across the country.

According to newspaper reports the 91-page draft report raises several question marks over not just the effectiveness of the scheme but the manner in which it is being implemented. It revealed significant deficiencies and scope for improvement. Diversion and misutilisation of funds and unreliable figures are factors responsible for this gross under-performance.

The audit urges the Centre to ensure that state governments take swift and immediate action. The Centre has sent this draft audit report to all the states for feedback which will be factored in the final report.

Even in the districts audited in Left-ruled Kerala, West Bengal, and Tripura, the average mandays generated during the year was eight days, two days, and five days respectively.

In Bihar, Rs 2.77 crore was paid during 2006-07 to unregistered labourers while in West Bengal, Rs 38.49 lakh cost was incurred for 20 works that do not exist.

The audit report said that in Tamil Nadu, unemployment allowances were not paid in any of the villages on the ground that such contingency did not arise. On the other hand in Manipur, a total of 843 works were executed on the basis of inflated estimates resulting in avoidable expenditure of Rs 2.57 crore.

Similarly in Jharkhand in violation of NREG rules, on the recommendation of six MLAs, 71 projects for Rs 5.14 crore were taken up although none was approved by the Gram Sabhas nor in the annual plans.

The irony is that in Madhya Pradesh, 214 minors were employed for 462 days and paid wages of Rs 14.63 lakh.  In Orissa the situation can be measured from the fact that Rs 11,521 was disbursed to seven deceased beneficiaries.