Audit: Rs20m irregularities found in college finances

‘The management had illegally kept funds in a bank account with a low interest rate’.

LAHORE:

The commercial audit director general has detected a financial irregularity involving Rs20 million, abuse of authority and embezzlement in the finances and other assets of Government College of Technology, Faisalabad.

An official at the director general’s office speaking on condition of anonymity told The Express Tribune that the college principal may have caused a Rs9.4 million loss to the public exchequer, according to the audit conducted for 2009 to 2013.

He said the losses were caused in six accounts: non-salary, short courses, self finance, pupil funds, second shift programme and security funds.

“The principal had kept the funds in a bank account with a low interest rate without approval from the Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA).”

He said the authority had released Rs3.8 million to the college’s management for the construction of a block under the Annual Development Programme for the year 2010-11.



“The management failed to utilise these funds and illegally kept them in a bank account with very low interest rate… this caused TEVTA a Rs1.4 million loss,” he said.

According to the audit report, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, an embezzlement was detected in purchase of equipment for the college.

The college’s management had granted a purchase agreement to the second lowest bidder at Rs6.9 million instead of the lowest at Rs4.3 million.

The official said the principal also “illegally” signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the domestic biogas programme at a cost of Rs1.3 million without approval from the TEVTA secretariat.

The college management has drawn Rs0.35 million from short course earnings. The report said this amount was beyond the entitlement of the beneficiaries including the principal.

The report also said that the management had spent Rs0.38 million for testing materials used at private parties without approval from the competent authority. The amount was distributed by the principal among his close aides, the report said.

A tele-presence lab set up for Rs0.9 million was still not operational, it said.

The report said that the principal had failed to start three one-year courses and five five-month courses despite obtaining an NoC from the TEVTA general manager (academics).

In addition, the principal and his staff had made payments in POL charges beyond entitlements causing a Rs150,000 loss.

As many as 554 trees worth Rs2.77 million were also illegally cut in the last three years. The wood was stolen with connivance of the college’s management by the timber mafia, the report said.

Government College of Technology, Faisalabad, Principal Muhammad Ali, refused to comment on the report.

A Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority official told The Express Tribune that appropriate cases would be initiated against those involved in accordance with the law.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 1^st, 2014.