Irregularities stir hornet’s nest in college education department

Concerns grow about unscrupulous officers, dept moves to re-empower government college principals

The Sindh College Education Department recently came under fire for various financial irregularities within its charge, opening a new can of worms for the department and raising several concerns about the state of Karachi’s education system.

It was alleged that in the past few months, the financial power of dozens of colleges had been transferred from principals to unconcerned officers, selected arbitrarily by the directors of the city’s government colleges.

However, what drew the ire of several headmasters was the transference of drawing and disbursing charge from Grade-19 and Grade-20 principals to Grade-16 clerks and superintendents in certain colleges.

Resultantly, the principals in question had been left virtually powerless and unable to meet necessary expenses, including staff salaries as well as routine affairs.

It was alleged that the drawing and disbursing officers (DDOs) in question had also been involved in misappropriating college funds, to the degree where principals had no knowledge of the budget’s mysterious expenditures.

According to Jam Mohammad Bohri Girls Government College Gulshan-e-Maymar principal Neelam Mushtaq, as a new appointee, she was surprised to learn from the provincial accountant general that her college’s financial charge rested with a superintendent of the Islamia College.

“Due to lack of DDO-ship, my own salary and that of various other staff members have been withheld in the past. The conditions are such that the college doesn’t even have money to buy sanitisers. When the relevant DDO came to visit our campus and was asked to release funds, he just shrugged off the request, saying the bills are yet to be passed,” lamented Mushtaq.

Similarly, Government Science College Gulshan-e-Iqbal principal Zubaida Nasreen confirmed her college’s DDO-ship was held by Jinnah Government College principal Manzoor Solangi. “The DDO has spent a quarterly budget of about Rs800,000, but the college has not received any of this amount,” she revealed.

Nasreen further claimed that when the budget was sought from the said DDO, she was told that the first quarter’s expenses had been handed to the regional director. “Our science labs had to be shut down after running out of chemicals and equipment, which we have no budget to restock. I informed the colleges secretary about this, but it appears my applications have fallen on deaf ears,” she added.

On the other hand, a former principal, speaking on conditions of anonymity, revealed that a clerk, holding the DDO charge of a college in a Karachi suburb, once alleged that the Karachi colleges director had made him sign a bill worth Rs1 million.

When the principal asked the clerk where the colossal amount would go, the clerk said he didn’t have the slightest idea. “All I have to do is sign the bill and hand it over to the vendor,” the clerk added after a brief pause.

The college principal further highlighted that so far there has been no accountability for DDOs who have been misappropriating college funds or the colleges director, who gave them the authority in the first place.

“For instance, Hafiz Abdul Bari Andar, the colleges director who illegally gave the power of DDO to unrelated persons, has been neither removed nor investigated for his actions up till now,” the principal claimed.

Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association (SPLA) Karachi president Professor Munawar Abbas said DDO-related problems had been raising several red-flags for corruption and fraudulent activities.

“It is beyond comprehension how and why a person can be handed the DDO charge of several colleges. SPLA believes that permanent principals should be appointed in all colleges and they should be the ones made DDOs as well. If not them for any reason, then it should be a senior professor of the same college taking the charge,” he asserted.

Amendments

Per latest developments in the case, it appears that growing concerns about unscrupulous DDOs are finally stirring the hornet’s nest, and the Sindh College Education Department has been moved to take charge of the situation.

In a notification dated November 23, the department explicitly attributed DDO charges to principals of all colleges operating within its administrative control.

According to the notification, there will be no additional orders for assigning DDOs, whereas henceforward, the postings of all new incoming and outgoing incumbents and their credentials to relevant accounting or auditing offices will also be handled by the colleges’ administrative offices.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2020.