In a bid to ensure transparency and accountability in rural development (RD) works, Haryana Government will get conducted a third-party external audit.
The third-party will conduct inspection of every work costing `20 lakh or more to be executed by the Development and Panchayats Department under various schemes in rural areas throughout the State.
The third-party will undertake quality audit of works assigned including sampling/testing wherever required, check the quality of various construction materials used in works, suggest remedial measures and improvement in quality of materials/construction methodology in various development works executed by Department under various schemes.
A senior official of the Development of Panchayats Department said that expression of interest for the third party quality assurance/audit has already been invited from government organizations, universities, institutions of repute having capability and expertise to carry out inspection of every work costing `20 lakh or more to be executed by the Department in rural areas throughout the state.
The official informed that the total yearly budget of works under various schemes may be around `500 crore.
The department has also invited 10 reputed institutes like PEC, NIT Kurukshetra, RITES Gurgaon, Delhi based Sriram Institute of Industrial Research, Central Road Research Institute Delhi, IIT Roorkee, IIT New Delhi among others to conduct the external audit of various works, he said.
The organization to conduct the external audit is likely to be finalised by August, he added.
The Development and Panchayats Department has also proposed to set up Quality Control and Vigilance Cell so as to ensure proper monitoring and best utilisation of funds. The cell would analysis the report of the agencies conducting third party inspection and will take appropriate action on it.