In the meeting, which was held in the Sindh Assembly building on Monday with Jam Tamachi Unar, chairman of the committee, university vice-chancellors maintained that they were not bound to follow the government’s finance regulations as their respective syndicates — that are autonomous — make the decisions for them in the universities’ interests.
The meeting found that there were irregularities in the funds of universities. Expenditure of million of rupees had incurred, but supporting vouchers or receipts were not available and no proper record was being maintained.
The meeting also decided to write to vice-chancellors of public universities to initiate an inquiry against their officials who are responsible for maintaining the accounts. “During the audit, universities failed to produce the vouchers of their expenses. Later they [somehow] managed to produce the same vouchers that were missing earlier. I think most of the vouchers they produced are fake,” said Unar.
Therefore, PAC has recommended taking action against officials who produced the receipts to settle the audit, he said.
During the meeting, the audit papers for the years 2006-07 and 2008-09 of four universities, including NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro and Sindh Agriculture University, Tando Jam were presented. Vice-chancellors, finance directors and other university officials were present at the meeting.
“Twenty-one audit paras of the above four universities have been settled, while 15 were deferred for the next meeting,” informed Nazeer Seehar, Sindh audit director-general (DG). After the audit, Rs10.15 million have been recovered from the universities, he added. “The management of the universities have assured us that they will collect the remaining amount very soon.”
As the first audit report of the NED university was presented, the audit DG said that Rs299,000 was spent on the purchase of machinery and other equipment - without inviting open tenders. He pointed out that repeated orders have been placed for immediate printing of “secret” material of examinations, which is violating the rules as orders can only be placed every three months.
However, NED’s vice-chancellor engineer Abul Kalam said that all relevant records were presented and accused the audit team of not being prepared to accept what was presented to them. “NED cannot take risks when their security or secrecy of information is concerned,” he said. “The university is not bound to follow the rules and regulations.”
The finance deputy secretary, who was representing the Sindh government’s finance department, said that all universities and institutions are bound to follow the finance rules.
Meanwhile, Seehar said Rs4.46 million was paid as conveyance allowance to even those NED university officials who lived on campus. The vice-chancellor responded that the amount was provided to employees from BPS 1 to BPS 22 in accordance with the office memorandum of the Government of Pakistan which was adopted by the university as an autonomous body. The chairman of the audit committee reiterated that the government’s finance rules have to be followed by everyone.
LUMHS audit
After reviewing the audit report of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Science, Jamshoro, the audit DG raised the issue of books purchased for Rs1.18 million, without inviting tenders. “There is a difference of Rs436,000 in the amount of the printed [audit] para and the amount mentioned in the vouchers.”
Mehran university audit
During the meeting on Mehran University of Engineering and Technology’s audit report, the audit DG raised the objection on the different audit paras where an advance amount of Rs3.43 million was given to employees, but the university’s vice-chancellor, Prof Dr AQ Rajput, said that an amount of Rs1. 57 million has been adjusted and efforts are under way to recover the remaining amount.
Nazeer Saheer concluded that there seemed to be a similarity in all the behaviour of university officials regarding their accounts and audit. He said that people on key posts are not properly responding to the committee’s queries .
The finance director requested the PAC chairman to write a letter to the Sindh chief minister about these irregularities and to initiate verification. Meanwhile, Saheer said that show-case notices should be issued to these officials to settle the audit paras.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 7th, 2010.
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