Funds are made available to districts based on employment demand and the need for material. Figure 1 presents the trend of fund availability and expenditure in the district.

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

• While expenditure under the scheme increased by 49% in 2020-21, the first year of the pandemic, the district had seen a large increase (39%) in 2019-20 as well.
• In the second year of the pandemic, expenditure decreased 64%, below the 2019-20 figure.
• The trend of 2020-21 and 2021-22 largely mirrors the countrywide trend. In 2020-21, areas with large in-bound migration saw a spike in work demand under MGNREGS. In 2021-22, some of that trend has reversed and people might be looking for work elsewhere.

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

• At the block level, in the period from 2017-18 to 2021-22, the largest fund available as well as the largest expenditure was recorded by Sonbarsa and Simri Bakhtiarpur, while the lowest was by Banma Ithari and Sattar Kattaiya.
• During this period, all blocks have seen fund availability exceed expenditure.

Of the total funds available with a district, some amount can remain unspent at the end of a financial year for various reasons. Or, in other cases, expenditure can exceed funds available, which indicates a shortage of funds. The extent of funds spent out of the total funds available is called the ‘rate of utilisation’.  
Figure 3 shows out of the total funds available with the district, how much was unspent at the end of the financial year, and its annual rate of utilisation.

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

• In all five years, there have been unspent funds.
• The amount of unspent funds has been coming down since 2018-19.
• Utilisation, which is spending as a percentage of available funds, has been improving and is near full utilisation (above 99%).

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

• Figure 4 presents the year-wise unspent balance at the block level.
• While the amount varies across years and across blocks, all 10 blocks had unspent balances at the end of financial years in this period.
• At the end of 2021-22, Simri Bakhtiarpur had the highest unspent balance, while Kahara had the lowest.

Total expenditure under MGNREGS occurs on four components: wages, material, taxes paid on buying materials, and lastly the administration. The last two are small components. Hence, only wages and material expenses have been analysed below.

_{Figure 5: Components of Expenditure}

• In these five years, the average share of wages in total expenditure was 77%, while the share of material was 22%.
• Expenditure on taxes and admin have a combined share of less than 2%.
• Both wage payments and material expenses increased in absolute terms up to 2020-21, and declined subsequently.
• In percentage terms, wage payment has been gradually declined from 88.2% in 2018-19 to 69.6% in 2021-22. Meanwhile, the share of material expenses has increased from 11.4% in 2018-19 to 27.5% in 2021-22.

Sometimes, either because of excess expenditure over funds available or because of procedural delays, payment for the work done can be due at the end of the period. This amount is called ‘payment due’. This amount is generally paid in the subsequent period. Figure 6 shows the trend of total payment due and its breakup across two major components, wages and material.

_{Figure 6: Total Payment Due (Rs Lakh)}

• Although the payment due fluctuated in absolute terms between 2017-18 and 2020-21, it remained at a relatively low level of less than 2% of total expenditure.
• Even in 2020-21, when demand for work surged, the payment due was 1.4% of total expenditure.
• In 2021-22, payment due has touched 14.8% of total expenditure.
• About 80% of payment due in 2021-22 is towards material expenses.
• At the end of 2021-22, Sour Bazar (Rs 4.86 crore) and Simri Bakhtiyarpur (Rs 2.86 crore) have the highest payment due, while Mahishi (Rs 43.03 lakh) and Salkhua (Rs 71.76 lakh) have the lowest due.
• The gap between total payment due and the sum of wages and material is payment due on tax.

Under the scheme, all rural households whose adult members are willing to do unskilled manual work, and demand the same, are to be given such work. In this context, there are three datapoints: how many persons demanded (applied for) work; of those who demanded, how many were offered work; of those who were offered work, how many availed the work. These indicators are presented below.

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

• There is divergence between the trend for total expenditure and that for employment demanded and availed.
• While expenditure under the scheme decreased 15% in 2018-19, over 2017-18, the number of persons demanding and availing work under the scheme increased by 20% and 33%, respectively.
• The annual rate of change in wage expenditure between 2018-19 and 2020-21 is 44%, while that for employment demanded and availed is more gradual at 17%.
• The difference in the trend of total expenditure versus employment availed can be explained by the average number of days a person worked in a year. This figure increased from 31 in 2017-18 to 41 in 2020-21. In 2021-22, it fell to 29.
• Of the households that were provided employment, less than 1% completed 100 days of employment in any of these five years.
• The low level of average days worked, against the 100 days guaranteed under the scheme, needs further research to identify the underlying reasons.

In these five years, while almost everyone who demanded work was offered employment, the number of persons actually availing work was relatively lower. Figure 8 shows what proportion of people who were offered employment actually availed the work. 

_{Figure 8: Out of All Who Were Offered Employment, What Proportion Availed It (%)}

• Barring 2018-19 and 2019-20, the proportion at the district and the state are at similar levels.
• At the state level, the proportion has increased continuously in these five years.
• Further research is needed to understand why about 20% persons who demanded employment and were offered it did not avail that employment.

Figure 9 presents the employment data divided by gender.

_{Figure 9: Gender Disaggregated Data}

• Both men and women registered an increase in work-days till 2020-21.
• In 2021-22, overall person-days decreased by 60%, and slipped below the 2018-19 figure.
• Women have had a higher share in work-days than men in all five years.
• The share of women in work-days shows two different trends. The first is from 2017-18 to 2019-20, when it increased. The second is from 2019-20 to 2021-22, when it declined. Identifying the reasons behind these changes needs further research.

Figure 10 represent the person-days availed, in absolute and relative terms, by the three social groups: Schedules tribes (STs), Scheduled castes (SCs) and others.

_{Figure 10: Employment for STs and SCs}

• All three population groups saw an increase in person-days till 2020-21.
• STs had a share of 0.32% in the district population. The same is reflected in their share of MGNREGS person-days (between 0.10% and 0.23%).
• The share of SCs in person-days declined from 2017-18 to 2020-21, but there was a marginal recovery in 2021-22.
• The share of SCs in person-days in the last three years is sizeably lower than their share in the district population (16.7%). Further research is required to determine the reasons behind this disparity.

Given the importance of the scheme in generating livelihoods for a large number of people, different data points/information related to the scheme should be available and accessible by the common masses. Figure 11 compiles a list of essential data points/information regarding MGNREGS that would 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: (http://mnregaweb4.nic.in/netnrega/MISreport4.aspx). The data was accessed on 20th June, 2022

_{Transparency and Accountability Index for MGNREGS in Pune} 

Availability of Information and Comprehensiveness

• Information on funds available
  • Yes
• Information on funds utilized
  • Yes
• Delays in compensation 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
• Disaggregation of beneficiaries’ data by social groups
  • Yes
• Availability of information on work/project undertaken
  • Yes
• Geographical granularity of the fiscal indicator
  • Houeshold

Accessibility

• Language of availability of information
  • English only (Addition of Hindi may be useful to users)
• Compatibility on devices
  • Phone, tablet, laptop friendly. But there’s no back button due to Captcha, which makes it a little cumbersome for users.

Timeliness

• Frequency of data updation
  • Real-Time

Relevance

• How relevant would users find it
  • It is largely useful and relevant for policymakers, civil society organizations (CSOs) and researchers. It can be made more relevant to beneficiaries. For instance, data on the number of projects, job-card holders, etc. is useful for researchers and CSOs; information on convergence of MGNREGS with other schemes and so on will be useful for policymakers and administrators, etc. However, beneficiaries cannot check their particular account status or delayed compensations, etc. 

Reliability

• Whether the data is reliable
  • While Comptroller and Auditor General (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