Leave encashment, no scholarships

University of Karachi’s (UoK) finance department has once again landed itself in hot waters for its financial irregularities. This time, the public university is under fire for blocking scholarships for hundreds of deserving students while issuing millions of rupees in funds to its employees in the name of benefits like leave encashment.

Per a notification issued in the regard, UoK employees from grade one to grade sixteen are being issued leave encashment of more than Rs60 million on the occasion of Eidul Fitr.

The notification also further highlights the office of the Deputy Registrar General has been directed to expedite the process of granting leave encashment to grade 17 officers and others as well, in the next phase of the programme.

Whereas, it is believed that in the third phase, which would be before or immediately after Eidul Fitr the university’s teaching staff would also be eligible for securing said leave encashment. This would bring the total amount of leave encashment for non-teaching employees, teachers, and officers of grade one to grade sixteen to Rs140 million. However, these decisions are said to have been made by neglecting the various objections raised by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in this regard, as well as the concerns raised in audits.

While an institution offering benefits to its employees is usually seen in good light, the issue with UoK is that it has been blocking merit and need-based scholarships for hundreds of students for the last several years citing a lack of funds. It is alleged about the university and its finance department, that the funds they dedicated to student scholarships have been misappropriated and are being spent on employee perks.

It is believed that UoK’s pending scholarship amount has run up to Rs13,000,000, which the city’s biggest public varsity does not have the funds to pay for. The blocked scholarships also include scholarships from external organisations like the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, Sindh Higher Education Commission, and the Prime Minister’s Ehsas Programme that issued funding to the university. However, no amount from the funding has so far been released to UoK’s distressed students, many of whom are financially challenged.

“We go to the relevant office of the Student Aid Programme to enquire about the scholarships, but we are neither granted a response nor are there any new scholarship advertisements issued by the department,” lamented one student, while requesting anonymity.

In the past, NAB had summoned the former director of finance and the former vice-chancellor of the public university to express its serious concerns over the issuance of leave encashment. It may be recalled that a letter was also written to director of finance from UoK’s financial aid office on issue of non-disbursement student scholarships. In its matter, the letter clearly alleged that the scholarship funds received from donors were being used for other purposes. It revealed that the HEC’s Need Base Scholarship Fund was being issued to the university as a non-developmental grant of Rs350 million annually without any suspension. In addition to that, the letter also mentioned that the HEC had also provided a scholarship fund for students, but the financial aid office was kept unaware of this amount, and no money from any of the aforementioned grants was spent on the students. The Express Tribune tried to contacted UoK Director of Finance Tariq Kaleem several times to seek his comments on the non-issuance of scholarships amid millions being guzzled by employees’ leave encashment. However, the director remained unavailable to comment on all official and personal channels, while his office, when contacted, said that he in a meeting with the vice chancellor and the press will be notified about his availability. The Express Tribune is yet to hear from Kaleem’s office.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 8^th, 2022.