MADURAI: With over 3,000 audit objections, accumulated over a period of 15 years, Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) is reeling under severe financial crisis. The university is yet to release the salaries and pensions for November.
Sources said though the university authorities requested the principal secretary of higher education for funds, the officials refused to release the money citing the audit objections. A teaching faculty told TNIE there were several mismatches in teaching and non-teaching staff recruitment that was objected by the auditors. “The auditors also objected to excess recruitment of non-teaching staff and casual labourers.
In the past 15 years, there were lot of violations in appointments, CAS promotion, construction of buildings and the like. It started affecting the employees,” he said, adding that though various committees and courts found mismanagement of funds by vice-chancellors (V-Cs), the government did not take any action against them. He said now the employees’ union is planning to write to CM M K Stalin demanding a CBI inquiry against former V-Cs responsible for the present plight.
“For the past few years, MKU officials had been involved in issuing forged certificates and in other malpractices. Hence, the University Grants Commission-Distance Education Board imposed a lot of restrictions in the admission process. This, in turn, affected the income,” he said.
Registrar (I/c) VS Vasantha said all the audit objections cannot be rectified all of a sudden. “But, MKU has formed a committee to solve the objections. We are planning to meet the finance minister to overcome the issue,” she said. Principal Secretary to the Higher Education Department D Karthikeyan was unavailable for comment.