Rs 900 cr misappropriated under MGNREGA in 5 years across India: social audit

CHENNAI: Nearly Rs 900 cr has been misappropriated under the MGNREGA scheme over the past five years, according to Social Audit reports that reveal large-scale fund misappropriation across the country. Of this, misappropriations amounting to Rs 60.79 cr have been reported in Tamil Nadu during the period, with authorities managing to recover around Rs 24.43 cr.

The social audit process aims to enhance transparency and ensure public accountability for the expenditure of several thousands of crores under the guaranteed employment scheme. “The exercise is carried out by the Social Audit Unit of the respective state. Active workers and their family members are involved in auditing the works undertaken under the scheme. It has gained significant importance in the last four years, as the percentage of panchayats brought under the exercise has gradually increased,” said an official involved in the social audit process.

The audit, conducted between 2020-2021 and 2024-2025, uncovered widespread financial irregularities, highlighting a total of 6,15,840 cases of fund misappropriation across 28 states and eight union territories, amounting to Rs 889.19 cr. Authorities have recovered only Rs 110.87 crore from those involved in the embezzlement, according to data available with DT Next.

Though the audit covered 38,032 panchayats, accounting for 14.7% of the total 2,70,378 panchayats in the country, in the fiscal year 2020–2021, the culture of conducting social audits has improved in subsequent years. However, states like Maharashtra, which has 28,292 panchayats, conducted social audits in less than one-fourth of them.

The scenario is no better in states such as Punjab, Haryana, and Jharkhand, where audits were carried out in fewer than 50% of the panchayats. In contrast, southern states fared significantly better, with audits conducted in over 95% of the panchayats. Kerala set a benchmark by conducting social audits in all 941 panchayats over the past three years.

Going by the trends, it is evident that if Maharashtra and other northern states were to follow the example set by the southern states and subject all panchayats to social audit, a staggering amount of misappropriated funds could be unearthed.

“Though the Union Government allocates funds exclusively for conducting social audits, many states continue to ignore the exercise. Such neglect undermines a scheme designed to guarantee employment for the underprivileged and economically disadvantaged sections of society,” said a senior bureaucrat, preferring to remain anonymous.

In 2024–25, the audit was carried out in 6,665 of Maharashtra’s 28,292 panchayats, revealing 5,176 cases of misappropriation amounting to Rs 7.11 crore. Of this, officials recovered only Rs 16.31 lakh, which accounts for just 2.29% of the total misappropriated amount, the report states.

In the previous year, 7,795 panchayats in the state were subjected to social audit, uncovering Rs 4.99 crore embezzled in 353 cases. However, officials managed to recover only Rs 19.40 lakh.