Odisha initiates unique ‘Work Passbook’ to document details of works

The Mohan Majhi government has introduced the ‘Work Passbook,’ a system designed to document all past and ongoing projects which will enable authorities to track work details, assess fund allocations, and evaluate project quality using artificial intelligence.

Touted as innovative initiative to prevent diversion of fund during execution of government projects, the ‘Work Passbook’ will be made available for public scrutiny.

The ‘Work Passbook’ will be implemented across all departments of the State. “Our government is committed to eliminate corruption at all levels. In order to bring in transparency we would use technology at various levels of governance. To discourage corruption in public works, every details of the works would be recorded in digital platform for public awareness. This digital record keeping would be called as ‘Work Passbook’,” said the Odisha CM, presenting budget on Monday (February 17, 2025).

The new initiative will be implemented in all engineering departments in the first phase next financial year.

According to sources, every work will be assigned unique identity number. After geo-tagging of the work, the government will upload estimate, bill and photographs of work during different stages. The government will come up with a detail guideline soon.

A senior officer stated that most projects undertaken in villages were marred by politically driven corruption, with little to no accountability for quality. Rural roads, in particular, are often rebuilt unnecessarily, while others in dire need of repair are ignored. In some instances, payments are processed for work that was never executed. He said people need to know about the works, both previous and ongoing.