A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the National Institute of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR) and Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), in virtual mode, on Thursday.
The pact between these two institutions will lead to collaboration for development of accounting or auditing standards for rural local bodies, ensuring accountability and transparency through social audit, maintenance of proper books of Accounts & Finance by various rural development functionaries, better systems of internal audit and control through data mining, and preparation of detailed project reports by rural micro and small entrepreneurs.
The MoU was signed by Shashi Bhushan, Deputy Director General, NIRDPR and CA (Dr.) Debashis Mitra, President, ICAI, in the presence of Nagendra Nath Sinha, Secretary, MoRD, Dr. G. Narendra Kumar, Director General, NIRDPR, Ms. Leena Johri, R.D. Chauhan, CCA, MoRD, Dr. Srikanth, Registrar, Radhika Rani, Director, NRLM-RC, Hemantha Kumar, Head, Centre for Internal Audit of NIRDPR and Aniket S. Talati, Vice-President, ICAI, and other officials from ICAI and NIRDPR.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Narendra Kumar felt that the MoU was a landmark event in the field of rural development, especially in the context of localisation of Sustainable Development Goals, with a view to develop government auditing, and achieving Gram Panchayat Development Plan across 2,50,000 rural local bodies spread across the country.
Further, he mentioned that proper financial management of Gram Panchayats, submission of Utilisation Certificates for the money spent, preparation of Detailed Project Reports for Rural Development programmes such as RURBAN, and NRLM by focusing on Return on Investment, seamless cash flows through Direct Benefit Transfer and Public Financial Management System for effective utilisation of funds will make rural India strong and accountable.
Mr. Mitra stated that they have developed accounting/auditing standards for Risk Based Internal Audit in respect of urban local bodies and would like to develop the same for rural local bodies for the larger benefit of the nation.
