MGNREGS: Rs 1,000 cr siphoned off in 6 yrs, recovery below 10 pc

CHENNAI: Social audits of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) have exposed financial misappropriation of Rs 110.89 crore in just one-third of the country’s panchayats this year alone, pushing the fraud under the scheme to over Rs 1,000 crore in the past six years.

However, the authorities have recovered a meagre portion -- Rs 122.66 cr -- of the amount siphoned off from the guaranteed employment scheme during the period.

The scheme, considered a lifeline for 12.21 crore active rural workers, including more than 88 lakh in Tamil Nadu, has been plagued by corruption and poor implementation.

From 2020-21 to 2024-25, social audit units exposed misappropriation worth Rs 889.19 crore, covering between 52.64 % and 79.01 % of the 2,69,243 panchayats across the country.

This fiscal, audits were carried out in 1,03,885 panchayats, accounting for only 38.58% of the total, where 61,347 cases of misappropriation involving Rs 110.89 crore were detected.

With this, the total funds siphoned off under the scheme have crossed Rs 1,000 crore.

Ironically, authorities have managed to recover just over Rs 122 cr, less than 13 % of the misappropriated amount, while nearly Rs 878 cr remains untraced.

“The level of swindling will certainly double if the social audit covers at least 75 per cent of the total panchayats this year, and it could cross Rs 250 crore,” said an official tracking the scheme.

In Tamil Nadu, social audits were conducted in 6,470 panchayats this year, a little over 51 per cent of the state’s 12,525 panchayats, exposing misappropriation of Rs 26.57 crore across 21,169 cases. However, recovery has been negligible, with authorities managing to trace only Rs 1.33 cr from the siphoned funds.

In fact, the reports pointed out that funds to the tune of Rs 87 cr had been swindled in 1.18 lakh cases of misappropriation during the period. The officials, so far, have recovered only Rs 38 cr in the state.

“Action should be taken against officials concerned for failing to recover the swindled funds from the errant persons at the earliest. The authorities should also go for legal actions to prevent such large-scale fraud in implementing the scheme,” further said the source.

MISAPPROPRIATION DATA

(Misappropriation of funds since 2020-2021 crossed over Rs 1,000 crores)

2020-21 Rs 115.02 cr

2021-22 Rs 215.72 cr

2022-23 Rs 160.01 cr

2023-24 Rs 169.76 cr

2024-25 Rs 228.57 cr

2025-26 (as on Sept 23) Rs 110.89 cr