New Delhi, Apr 27: Amidst increasing complaints of corruption in the UPA’s flagship social welfare programme National Rural Health Mission, the Centre has ordered an audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General.
 The development takes place in the wake of the multi-crore NRHM scam in Uttar Pradesh.
 Announcing this in Lok Sabha on Friday, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said following irregularities found in UP and other states, the Centre had asked the CAG to audit the funds allocated under NRHM.  "The CAG has agreed to it...It will audit future allocations and let us see if it can audit the past records too," he said in reply to discussion on Demand for Grants for the Health and Family Welfare Ministry.
 Azad announced that the NRHM scheme started seven years ago will continue for the next five years following an approval by the Union Cabinet last night.
 Referring to the scam, he said the magnitude of irregularities in UP was "according to its size" and similar irregularities have been reported from other states also.
 Asserting that government will take stringent measures to check the problem, Azad said state governments as well as officials will have to account for each paisa spent under the scheme. The CAG does not audit funds spent by states under NRHM, but it has been done in the case of UP following the scam.
 The minister said measures like statutory audit, model accounting handbook, and e-banking have been adopted during the last two years to streamline the system.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 27 Apr 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:30:00 GMT
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