State minister for rural development and panchyati raj, Bharat Singh
said on Wednesday the country has progressed a lot in the field of
health, education etc but the phenomenon of accountability has weakened
after Independence. "The outcomes are not always in proportion to the
amount of expenditures made for the social development schemes and
programmes. This is where the question of accountability comes in."
He was speaking at a two-day
workshop on Social Accountability in India: Moving from Mechanisms to
Outcomes and Institutionalisation in Large-Scale Public Programmes.
Giovanna Prennushi, economic
advisor to the World Bank, in her keynote address said, "The World Bank
is trying to incorporate social accountability mechanism in flagship
schemes for better public expenditure outcomes. During my work, I have
understood the importance of community activism and it is the best way
to encourage accountability."
Parmesh Shah, lead rural
development specialist of the World Bank stated in his opening remarks
about the need of institutionalising a system by which public
expenditure outcomes can be enhanced. The experiences which are
accompanied by achievement and outcomes should be incorporated in the
system. He put a question that despite efforts of CSOs and government
policies, the changes are not achieving the outcomes.
"Citizens have the right to
demand accountability and public actors have an obligation to be
accountable to its citizens and it is a challenge how we can
institutionalise the social accountability mechanism in the system.
However, there are enabling environment for good governance in the
country," said George Cheriyan, director, CUTS.
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