Shillong, Nov. 2 (PTI): Former bureaucrat Toki Blah has been appointed as the chairman of Social Audit Council, a panel formed by the state legislation to review government programmes during the course of their implementation.
Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, while appointing Blah as the head of the audit panel, said Meghalaya was the first state in the country to have this council.
“Meghalaya is the first state to have a Social Audit Act. This will empower people to audit government expenditure,” he said.
The state government had passed the Social Audit Bill in the last session of the Assembly, following which the council was formed.
All heads and secretaries of government departments, deputy commissioners and members of prominent civil society organisations in the state would be a part of the council, Blah said.
“The new council would mobilise public and civil societies to carry out concurrent audit of all development works in the state. We hope to achieve greater transparency and accountability in government services,” he told PTI.
The chief minister said his wish to ensure overall development of the state would come true with the formation of this council.
“Instead of a carrying out a postmortem after the implementation of a project, the new council would help check irregularities during the course of its execution,” Sangma said.
