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| October 7, 2005 | Friday | Ramazan 2, 1426 |
Nepotism tarnishes varsity’s image
ISLAMABAD, Oct 6: Higher Education Commission (HEC) has found out serious administrative and financial malpractices at the Islamabad campus of the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (FUUAST), Dawn has learnt.
HEC’s monitoring report of the Urdu university’s Islamabad campus made available to Dawn refers to several irregularities discovered during a review of campus affairs.
For instance, a teacher who taught for one semester, was paid Rs15,390 by the university but the record submitted to the monitoring team showed she had been paid Rs135,900.
Professionals hired by the university were paid for 17 months instead of 10, as approved in PC-I of the university.
Likewise, instead of taking these professionals on recurring side after 10 months, the salaries were paid from project account for which no approval was obtained by the university.
Worse would have happened on the maintenance and renovation accounts as support documents and details of renovation and maintenance expenditures were not provided by the university.
Similarly, the university has not maintained proper record of books purchased and their distribution, the report said.
An amount of Rs3.2 million — 25 per cent over and above of the approved cost — has been paid under the heading of rent of campus building without getting approval from competent authority, the report says.
It also levelled serious charges of nepotism against the university authorities.
When contacted, Prof (Dr) Syed Iqbal Mohsin, Vice-Chancellor of the University in Karachi, confirmed that the university’s senate had received HEC’s report regarding mismanagement in Islamabad campus.
“Yes, the report has observed certain financial and administrative irregularities committed at the university’s Islamabad campus,” Dr Mohsin said, informing that the university’s registrar had reached Islamabad to look into the affairs.
“I am also going to Islamabad in a couple of days to sort out what actually has gone wrong. The university has also engaged a private firm for audit,” he added.
In response to a question, Dr Mohsin confirmed that nepotism was detected at the Islamabad campus but said the appointment in question was legal. He claimed that the reasons for charges of nepotism have been removed.
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