Resources management of Grama Panchayats in Kerala for sustainable development: An efficiency analysis

The Local Fund Audit Department under Government of Kerala analyzes and evaluates the fund management of the Panchayat Raj Institutions by analyzing the four pillars. The audit report reveals all the activities of the Panchayats like energy, water, education, proper /improper utilization of funds, misuse, failures and inefficiency of the systems and wasteful expenditure associated with the fund utilization and management This study intended to analyze the financial management of selected Grama Panchayats in Kerala through analyzing the important aspects of fund management such as resource mobilization, utilization, budgeting and auditing.168 Grama Panchayats participated in the Finance Standing Committee training programme held at Kerala Institute of Local Administration(KILA) Thrissur. Out of which 41 Grama Panchayats were selected through simple random sampling and lottery method. From the study, it is found that most of the Grama Panchayats are not doing the financial management and fund utilization properly. There are only few Panchayats performs comparatively better in case of budget and auditing and certain Panchayats are not even satisfied the minimum required performance as the foremost institution in the mobilization of resources and distribution of government funds for the developmental activities. Major reasons identified in connection with the mismanagement financial resources in the Grama Panchayats are lack of the knowledge of the fund management and inefficiency of the Panchayats officials.