COIMBATORE: The Comptroller and Auditory General of India (CAG) has rapped the erstwhile Anna University of Technology in Coimbatore for injudicious procurement of CNC machinery at a cost of `5.47 crore in 2008 for conducting practical classes for students without ensuring availability of space for installing them, thus resulting in their non-installation for more than three years.
In its report tabled in the State assembly on August 12, the CAG had said, AUT-Coimbatore had in November 2008 invited tenders for supply, installation and maintenance of used precision machinery for setting up a mechanical, manufacturing workshop with computer-controlled machinery for conducting practical classes for students.
The firm to which the purchase orders were placed to supply 12 machines costing `4.44 crore supplied 11 machines between June 2009 and May 2010 and the university paid `4.42 crore to the firm. One machine valued at `13 lakh was not supplied, the report said.
It should be noted that R Radhakrishnan was the Vice Chancellor of AUT in 2009 and he was suspended by the Tamil Nadu government in August 2009.
It was also noticed that availability of space for installing the machines was not ensured by the university before placing the order. Consequently, the machines supplied were kept in sealed condition in the university till December 2013, CAG report states.
“In reply, the government stated that most of the machinery was under the category of heavy duty production machinery which required proper foundation for erection in the presence of experts and that the process would take a few months. The government stated that an enquiry in this regard was pending,” CAG report said.