Audit is one such initiative which is gaining ground and it encompasses all the three elements. With the enactment of the NREGA, the audit has become mandatory and is widely talked and written about. However, the audit is still an emerging and evolving concept and not much literature in terms of guidelines or handbook or manual is available for use by either the development functionaries or civil society organisations. It is a comprehensive work published for the first time in India, keeping in view the needs of syllabus of university level and higher education systems. It is earnestly hoped that planners, administrators in the field of auditing, finance management as well as the general public and the teachers and students will find this work extremely useful.