Empowering Rural India: The Impact of Social Audits on Transparency and Accountability in MGNREGS

Abstract

This study analyses the quality of the implementation of social audits and its effect on perceived accountability, using the case of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in India, for which perceived transparency serves as a possible mediating mechanism. Despite legal requirements that social audits be used as a governance tool, there is considerable variation in their quality and effectiveness across states, which has created a gap in understanding what quality implementation means for more meaningful accountability outcomes for recipients and officials. The research was conducted using the partial least squares structural equation modelling technique with panchayat officials in various administrative locations. Three key constructs were explored: Social Audit Implementation Quality, including dimensions such as timeliness, participation of the community, independence of the political system, accessibility of information, and systematic follow-up of irregularities; Perceived Transparency, including dimensions of visibility and verifiability of MGNREGS processes; and Perceived Accountability, including dimensions of belief in official responsibility and responsiveness of institutions. The results show that the quality of audit implementation is a significant factor in the perception of transparency. Transparency significantly impacts the accountability perceptions of panchayat officials. Furthermore, audit quality has a direct impact on perceptions of accountability that are separate from the path of transparency. Notably, perceived transparency mediates a meaningful part of the relationship between audit quality and accountability, with direct pathways also being substantive, suggesting that more than one mechanism works simultaneously. The proposed model shows good explanatory power regarding accountability and transparency perceptions. These findings validate the high-quality implementation of social audits, an approach which emphasises procedural integrity, inclusiveness, independence, and responsive follow-up, as a substantive governance intervention. The research highlights the need for transparency alone to be not adequate for accountability, and meaningful improvement would require linking improvements in transparency with evidence of institutional responsiveness and corrective action to improve rural governance under MGNREGS.