Rare honour for Telugu officer at World Leaders Summit

Vijayawada: A Telugu officer has been given a rare honour for his efforts to ensure the proper use of public funds and increase transparency in public administration. The Public Transparency and Governance Leadership Award announced by the World Leaders Summit will be presented to Telugu officer Srikanth Gonnabathula. The award ceremony is scheduled for Sunday at Oxford University in England.

Currently, Srikanth serves as the managing director of the Andhra Pradesh Society for Social Audit, Accountability and Transparency (APSAT).

Through this organisation, he has played a crucial role in enhancing transparency and accountability, particularly in employment guarantee schemes. The World Leaders Summit presents these awards after considering various factors such as competence, leadership, innovative policies, use of technology, transparency, and social impact of leaders who run systems worldwide. These awards specifically recognise ”game-changers” in society.

The Central government spends thousands of crores of rupees through the Employment Guarantee Scheme to provide livelihood security to the poor. The social audit organisation works to ensure this money is not misused.

Under the leadership of Chief Minister Chandrababu and the guidance of Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, Srikanth has made Andhra Pradesh the number one state in social audit at the national level.

He has made Andhra Pradesh a role model for several other states and is making significant efforts through social audits to prevent the misuse of public funds. In the past, he has also guided officers from other states in the social audit department at the national level, preventing the misuse of hundreds of crores of public funds. Srikanth has also received national awards for his work in the social audit department over the past few years.