The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : GMC to start Social Accountability Audit

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Monday, Mar 24, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

GMC to start Social Accountability Audit

P. Samuel Jonathan

Aim is to take feedback from people

GUNTUR: For the people of Guntur whining about the quality of civic works, here is an opportunity to air their views on the ground.

The Guntur Municipal Corporation will start an innovative programme, Social Accountability Audit (SAA), which will test the quality of civic works taken up recently and take feedback from the people about the quality of work.

``The social audit is an exercise aimed at involving tax payers in the development process initiated in the city and also to remind the tax defaulters of their responsibilities. The audit would also make a quality control assessment,” Municipal Commissioner Siddhartha Jain told The Hindu on Wednesday.

For this purpose, Special Officers, deputed for revenue collection, will visit wards where civic works, such as laying of C.C Roads, drinking water pipelines and Under Ground Drainage (UGD) connections have been taken up recently. The officers would carry with them the Measurement Books (MB), which record the details of the nature of work, the number of labourers involved and the expenditure involved. The officers would record their impressions of the MB, which would be taken into consideration before finalizing the payments due to the contractor.

``We want to convey the message to the people that the taxpayer’s money is pumped back into the development of the city,” Mr. Jain said.

Daunting task

Realising the mounting tax arrears has been a daunting task for the corporation which has taken up special revenue collection drives to boost up its sagging revenues before the financial year ends on March 31.

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