NEW DELHI: A special audit of seven Delhi University colleges funded by the Delhi government has revealed serious financial irregularities and violation of UGC norms, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia claimed on Friday. Sisodia said despite showing a surplus of crores, salaries of the teachers and staff were not released.
“After receiving complaints of mismanagement of funds, we sanctioned a special audit to examine the fund expenditure of five colleges funded by the Delhi government. Despite their resistance to the audit, it is clear that these colleges have been grossly mismanaging funds, as shown by the report of the audit,” Sisodia said at a press conference.
Sisodia said the special audit, when initiated, was obstructed by the colleges by resisting to show their accounts books to the audit officers. The books were only shown when the High Court intervened. “Two major issues have emerged in the special audit; unauthorised payments by the college, and surplus funds being stashed by the colleges,” said Sisodia explaining the extent of mismanagement.
The colleges that were audited on the order of the court are Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, Keshav Mahavidyalaya, Shaheed Sukhdev College, Bhagini Nivedita College, and Maharishi Valmiki college. Two colleges, Aditi Mahavidyalaya and Lakshmibai College, refused to allow the audit to be carried despite the order, said the minister.
The minister alleged that multiple irregularities have been brought out by the audit such as payment of teaching, and non-teaching staff against the posts that did not have sanction of the Directorate of Higher Education, hiring of security guards/housekeeping staff in violation of GFR, purchase of computers and other hardware without following norms, and hiring of cars without following norms. Moreover, the record of the attendance of such people was not shown.
He also said all the money spent by these colleges was unauthorised, without seeking any approval from the Delhi Government as the colleges continued to make illegal payments. “Paying salaries of Rs 40,000 to security guards is a clear violation of this as standard pay is between 15,000-20,000. These inflated salaries imply this was done to hide their own misappropriation,” he said.
“Any source of earning, and the total income received by the college from fees has to be declared to Delhi Government. However, these colleges violated this pattern of assistance as large, undeclared incomes in their accounts have been found by the auditors. This constitutes ‘fraud’ as these colleges kept taking funding from the government on false premises,” he added. Sisodia alleged that despite having surplus funds, the colleges have failed to pay salaries of staff, and falsely blamed the Delhi government.