Punjab will be the first state in the country to get third party financial and performance audit of village works conducted, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said Tuesday.
Badal said that third party audit will be conducted on money spent by 13,047 panchayats on the various development works in villages. The audit would be done by international firms.
He said that the Punjab government has already finalized a plan to revamp the civic infrastructure of all villages in three phases for which over Rs.24,000 crore would be spent.
"The main focus (of the third party audit) is that money set aside for development works in the villages should be fruitfully and properly utilized for allocated projects," Badal said.
He said that for the first time besides financial audit of funds of panchayats, there would be performance audit of works executed by panchayats every six months. The audit expenses will be borne by the state government.