Fund is made available for the districts based on the demand of employment and the need for material.

^{Figure 1: Fund Available and Expenditure (Rs Crore)}

• Between FY 2017-18 and FY 2021-22, total fund available, which is mainly the fund released each year by the government but also includes the surplus/ unspent balance from last year, has seen an increase of Rs 88.0 crore. In the same period, total expenditure has also seen an increase of Rs 89.7 crore.
• The largest of this increase came in 2020-21 when fund availability and expenditure increased by 65% and 73% year-on-year compare to average of 18% in last two years.
• The increase in 2020-21 is on account of the multi-faceted economic crisis induced by COVID-19 pandemic which increased the demand for employment under MGNREGS. 

^{Figure 2: Cumulative Fund Available and Expenditure Between FY 2017-18 and FY 2021-22 (Rs Crore)}

• Figure 2 shows the total fund available and total expenditure at the block level for the period of 2017-18 and 2021-22.
• In this period, the largest fund available as well as the largest expenditure has been for Manika, while the lowest is for Mahuadanr. 
• Out of nine blocks, three blocks, namely – Balumath, Bariyatu and Herhanj has higher expenditure than fund available.

Out of the total fund available at the district, at the end of the financial year, some funds can remain with the district and not spent for various reason. The extent of fund spent out of total fund available is called rate of utilisation.  

Figure 3 shows that out of total fund available, how much was left with the district at the end of financial year, and what has been the rate of utilisation.

^{Figure 3: Unspent Balance and Rate of Utilisation}

• In all four years, there have been funds which were unspent.
• The level of unspent fund has been coming down.
• Utilisation has been improving consistently.

^{Figure 4: Unspent Balance /Shortage of fund at Blocks (Rs lakh)}

• A positive unspent balance indicates funds that was not spent at the end of the period, while a negative unspent balance indicates excess of expenditure over fund allocated, in other words – shortage of fund.
• Out of 9 blocks, five blocks (Garu, Mahuadanr, Latehar, Chandwa and Barwadih) have unspent balance in all five years.
• Three blocks (Balumath, Bariatu, and Herhanj) have shortage of fund in all five years. This indicates that these three blocks need additional funds and have the capacity to absorb it.
• Given the unspent balance at district level and at some of blocks, there is scope for better management of fund which can reduce the shortage of fund as well unspent fund.

Total expenditure under MGNREGS occurs in four different components – on wages, on material, on tax which are paid while buying materials, and on administration. Last two are small components, hence only wage and material expenses have been analysed below.  

^{Figure 6: Components of Expenditure}

• Almost all the increase in the expenditure in last two years has gone towards the increase in wage payments. 
• Out of an increase of year-on-year increase of Rs 56 crore in 2020-21, Rs 51 crore has been used for increasing wage payments. 
• This is another indication of high demand of the MGNREGS work in the wake of Covid-19 induced lockdown and the subsequent employment crisis. 
• Material expenses increased slowly till FY 2020-21, then has remained at similar levels in last three years.
• Other two expenses – taxes and administration – have remained at similar levels of Rs 3-5 crore combined in this period.
• In the year 2018-19, total expenditure on wage was 58.3% to total expenditure, which is below the 60% level prescribed for the scheme.

Either because of excess expenditure over fund available, or because of procedural delays, sometimes, payment for the work done can be due at the end of the period, which is generally paid in the subsequent period. This amount is called ‘payment due’. 

^{Figure 5: Total Payment Due (Rs Lakh)}

• While payment due remained fell in FY 2018-19 and 2019-20, in last two years, it increased by Rs 1.8 crore and Rs 3 crore.
• Most of the payment due in last two years has been towards material.
• At the end of March 2022, Manika (Rs 1.9 crore) and Balumath (Rs 1.6 crore) have the highest payment due, while Herhanj (Rs 7 lakh) and Mahuadanr (Rs 11 lakh) have lowest due.
• The gap between total payment due and sum of wage and material is payment due on tax.
• Given the unspent balance at the district level, there is scope of improvement for better management of fund such that payment can be made faster which will reduce the payment due.

Under the scheme, all rural household whose adult members are will willing to do unskilled manual work and demand the same are to be given such work. There are three datapoints – how many persons demanded (applied for) work; out of all who demanded, how many were offered work; and out of all who were offered, how many actually availed the work. These indicators are presented below – 

^{Figure 7: Trends of Employment Demanded, Offered and Availed (No. of Persons in 1,000)}

• The number of persons demanding the job increased by 60% year-on-year which again points to the impact of COVID-19 induced crisis in job market. 
• In 2021-22, the demand came down by 7%, but the number of persons availing the work went up.
• In all five years, the number of persons who were offered employment is almost equal to the number of persons who demanded, which likely indicates very high degree of preparedness and planning.

^{Figure 8: How many are availing the employment out of all who are offered}

• The figure shows the comparison of Latehar with the State in terms of percentage of people who are availing of employment out of all who were offered employment.
• At the district level, the number of persons who availed the work out of all those who were offered varies year wise, and is in the range of 74% (2018-19) to 85% (2021-22). This is on the similar level as at the state level (70% to 84%)
• The reason(s) behind the gap between the number of persons who were offered employment and who availed employment need to investigated further.
• In Latehar, the average number of days a person worked in a financial year range from 30 (in 2017-18 and 2018-19) to 43 (in 2020-21)
• The number of families who have completed the 100 days of work in a financial year is in the range of 1%-4%. The peak of 4% was reached in the year of pandemic 2020-21.
• The three indicators – low proportion of person availing the work, low number of average days worked by each person, and very low number of families who have completed 100 days of employment – these all need further research to see the reasons behind as they are below the targets set in/objectives of the scheme.

Following figure presents the employment data divided by gender.

^{Figure 9: Gender Disaggregated Employment Data}

• Both men and women have seen increased number of employed days till 2020-21. 
• In 2021-22, while the person days by men fell by 8%, for women it fell by 1%. 
• Between FY 2018-19 and FY 2021-22, share of work-days for women have increased from 41.4% to 45.1%.
• It needs further research to see the reasons behind the increasing share of women in person days.

Following figure represent the person-days availed in absolute number as well as share of total by the three social groups – Schedules tribes (STs), Scheduled castes (SCs) and others.

^{Figure 10: Employment for STs and SCs}

• All three population groups – SCs, STs, and others have seen increase in work-days in absolute number till 2020-21
• In 2021-22, the number of person days fell for all three groups by similar level (~0.5%).
• The others group saw a proportionately higher increase in the person-days generated between FY 2018-19 and FY 2021-22 compared to STs and SCs.
• The share of STs and SCs in the district population is 45.5% and 21.3%. Comparatively, both groups have a lower share in work days in MGNREGS. 
• Further research is required to determine if the comparatively lower share of persondays by STs and SCs is due to any systematic barrier to the access of employment under MGNREGS.

Given the importance of the scheme in generating livelihood for a large number of people, different data points/information about the scheme should be available and accessible by the common masses. 

Here, a list of essential data points/information regarding MGNREGS have been compiled which is of interest to various stakeholders, and hence must be available and accessible for the district.

The data points /information regarding MGNREGS is available on the MIS of the scheme available at: http://mnregaweb4.nic.in/netnrega/MISreport4.aspx (Data accessed on 20^th May, 2022).

Transparency and Accountability Index for MGNREGS in Latehar

Availability of Information and Comprehensiveness

• Information on funds available
  • Yes
• Information on funds utilized
  • Yes
• Delays in compensations and the reasons thereof
  • Yes
• Status of beneficiaries’ accounts- frozen or unfrozen
  • Details on number of frozen accounts is available but beneficiaries may not be able to check their status
• Information on ‘Number of Person-days’ of jobs generated
  • Yes
• Gender-wise disaggregation of beneficiaries’ data
  • Yes
• Caste-wise disaggregation of beneficiaries’ data
  • Yes
• Availability of information on work/project undertaken
  • Yes
• Geographical Granularity of the fiscal indicator
  • Household

Accessibility

• Language of availability of information
  • English only (Hindi may be useful to users)
• Compatibility on devices
  • Phone, tablet, laptop friendly but no back button due to captcha, so becomes a little cumbersome for users

Timeliness

• How frequently are data updated
  • Real-Time

Relevance

• How relevant would users find it
  • Largely useful and relevant for policy makers, CSOs and researchers. Can be made more relevant to beneficiaries. For instance, data on number of projects, job card holders etc. are useful for researchers and CSOs; information on convergence of MGNREGS with other schemes and so on will be useful for policy makers and administrators etc. However, beneficiaries cannot check their particular account status or delayed compensations etc.

Reliability

• Whether the data are reliable
  • While CAG audit reports for MGNREGS are available, authenticating with MIS as well as ground-truthing is essential. 

Accountability and Citizen’s Participation

• Social Audit schedules
  • Social audit calendars are available
• Availability of social audit reports
  • Gram Panchayat Social Audit Reports are available for some Panchayats in some years based on selection for social audit
• Participation of beneficiaries in Gram Sabhas
  • Although details on action taken after social audits are available, information on the number of beneficiaries as participants is not available; just the total number of participants in the Gram Sabhas is given
• Availability of details on financial misappropriation and recovery
  • Yes
• Availability of information on Grievance Redressal Mechanism for beneficiaries
  • Ombudsperson’s status and complaint register are available but may need to be updated. Beneficiaries can check the status of complaints at: http://mnregaweb4.nic.in/netnrega/citizen_html/compdetail.aspx?source=national&Digest=nck/Hyo9Jns5wL4J/4pLUg