Voluntary social systems are the most understudied subject in public policy, with the preference being for coercive structures. This blog is dedicated to finding non-coercive solutions to our social problems.
Its funny that the very points I've been making about the
Dept of Education not being accountable have now come out in the open. Here is an article from the Daily Pioneer, Sep 14, 2005 (which I would happily link to if any intelligent techie can show me how, their links never seem to work):
| You paid the cess, Govt made a mess |
Santanu Banerjee/ New Delhi |
Out of Rs 8004.71-cr allotted for education, HRD clueless on how Rs 5,580.72 cr was spent--- The Human Resource Development Ministry seems to be clueless on the pattern of expenditure incurred on the nationwide Elementary Education (EE) and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) schemes. The only available expenditure records - under five heads and not all the heads - amount to Rs 2,324.99 crore of the total fund allocation of Rs 8,004.71 crore.
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| In the absence of an expenditure breakup, Rs 2,324.99 crore taken out of the total amount shows a huge expenditure of Rs 5,680.72 crore as spent for which no records are available.
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| A huge amount of taxpayers' money was collected by way of two-per cent cess by the Finance Ministry after the UPA Government was sworn in for the two schemes. The total fund of Rs 8,004.71 crore has the share of Rs 5,010 crore which was collected through the cess.
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| The missing expenditure figures in both the EE and SSA schemes indicate a misuse of funds. That the fund has not exactly been utilised for the purpose gets further reinforced by the poor performance of the National Literacy Mission in some States like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
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| Interestingly, the Union Government, which created a huge fund for implementing the scheme under the HRD Ministry, understandably "has no records" other than those that show the total expenditure incurred over the schemes.
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| HRD reports do not elaborate the money spent on all heads for the spread of EE and SSA. An expenditure of Rs 5,680.72 crore does not find heads on which the entire amount is being spent.
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| Figures of the fund spent are only available under five heads: Mid-day meal, district primary education, Kusturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, support to NGOs, Jan Shikshan Sangathan (see box).
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| The HRD audit clearly shows the total expenditure, which is Rs 7,950.65 crore for the year 2004-05. It also shows the amount returned to the Union Finance Ministry and the amount that lapsed.
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| Under the scheme, the State Governments are spending a huge amount on recruitment of para-teachers and construction of school buildings. HRD records show that during the year 2003-05, 80,000 new school buildings were constructed for carrying forward the elementary education campaign. There are no records to show how much was spent on the buildings.
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| The problem and `fund's misuse' is set to magnify with the HRD having sanctioned another huge number to teachers for the schemes. According to the HRD Ministry, sanctioned posts of para-teachers for the schemes will touch a total of 7.7 lakh in one year. At present, 3.45 lakh ad hoc teachers have been employed.
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| The populist emphasis on job creation has created a massive financial problem for the State Governments. They are now facing agitations by the ad hoc teachers for regularisation of their jobs.
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