Where is the money? MUET officials apologise for misuse of funds

The PAC questions why there is no record of where the varsity has spent Rs69.8m.

KARACHI:

Officials of the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET), Jamshoro, apologised to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Sindh Assembly on Wednesday, admitting that they had abused their authority and misused the varsity’s funds.

The meeting was chaired by the PAC chairperson, Saleem Raza Jalbani, at the committee room of the Sindh Assembly. Members of the provincial watchdog grilled the university’s officials over irregularities worth millions of rupees that were accrued by violating the rules and allotting land illegally to private people and companies.

“The varsity’s officials have spent Rs69.8 million but we could not find where the money was spent during the audit,” the audit department’s director-general, Ghulam Akbar Sohu, told the meeting.

For his part, the varsity’s acting vice-chancellor, Dr Ghous Bux Khaskheli, admitted to the error but defended his administration by saying that the amount was used to hire private security guards to secure the varsity’s lands from land grabbers. “We had to hire these guards to protect the 2000-acre land from land grabbers,” he explained.

When the audit DG and PAC members questioned why he hadn’t invited tenders for the services of a private company, he became confused and started apologising profusely. He defended, however, the varsity’s decision to hire the security guards to save the varsity’s lands.

Police officers ‘encroaching’ varsity land

VC Khaskheli told the meeting that a police officer had encroached some parts of the varsity’s land and had set up a petrol pump on it. “Not just the police, other people have started occupying our land,” he decried. “Even the National Highway Authority has given our land to private persons.”

The university’s finance director, Munir Ahmed Shaikh, reasoned that they were forced to hire private security guards and had no mala fide intentions. “Other institutions, such as the Sindh University, and the Liaquat Medical University have lost large parcels of land to these land grabbers,” he said. “We simply wanted to prevent this from happening to us.”

The PAC chairperson rejected, however, their excuse and formed two sub-committees of the accountability body to investigate the matter.

PAC or jirga

As the meeting progressed, the audit department and the university’s officials lashed at each other with allegations and counter-allegations. MUET’s finance director blamed the audit DG for deliberately not verifying the audit paras because of a personal grudge against him. Both officials accused each other of violating the decorum of the meeting.

The audit DG went as far as allege that the finance director’s appointment was illegal as it did not conform to the rules and laws of higher education institutions. The heated argument between the two officials compelled the PAC chairperson to intervene.

“This is an official meeting, not a jirga to settle your personal disputes.” On this remark, both officials apologised to each other and settled the dispute.

Anomalies

Earlier, officials of the audit department presented the list of anomalies in the university’s accounts which comprised seven audit paras for the fiscal year 2008-2009, with a net worth of Rs44.2 million.

The PAC settled three of the audit paras worth Rs5.6 million when the officials produced the records. The other four audit paras, involving anomalies of Rs33.9 million were deferred after the officials failed to produce the vouchers.

Addressing the media after the meeting, Jalbani said that the performance of public sector universities in the province left much to be desired. He said that they would continue efforts to bring educational standards of the universities up to the mark.

Jalbani, for the second consecutive day, expressed his annoyance over the absence of the provincial finance secretary and senior officials of the department, adding that he will write to the chief secretary to ensure their attendance.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th, 2014.