July 07, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 21, 1428

FAISALABAD, July 6: The registrar and acting treasurer of the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF), have developed differences over the issue of employees’ ‘selection’ for extra duty honorarium, Dawn learnt on Friday.

The UAF administration approved honorarium worth Rs4 million for its ‘select’ employees for their ‘extra duties’ in the last financial year some five days ago. Vice-Chancellor (VC) Dr Bashir Ahmed approved the list of ‘select’ officers, prepared by department heads with the consent of the treasurer.

The administration has no clearly stated criteria to assess the performance of employees to select them for extra salaries.

Following the tussle, both Registrar Muhammad Husain and acting treasurer Dr Shahid Afzal Gill stopped approving bills of one another’s departments.

Sources said the registrar objected to the selection of employees of pre-audit and budget sections for extra salaries. But the treasurer wanted to grant extra pays to employees of both departments.

They said the acting treasurer wanted to facilitate them to win their favours, as he intended to hold the seat permanently. They said if both departments raised objections over his performance, it would create problems for Mr Gill to achieve the target.

But the register is doing his best to stop Mr Gill from becoming a permanent treasurer.

Insiders said Mr Gill had been serving under the command of the registrar as he still holds the charge of deputy registrar. Mr Husain doesn’t want to see his junior official a permanent treasurer.

They said Mr Gill won the race of honorarium by bagging six additional salaries. The administration justified the act on the basis that he had been handling three posts — treasurer, deputy treasurer and deputy registrar of the students’ record branch. However, the registrar also got two extra salaries.

VC Dr Bashir Ahmed met the treasurer and asked him to run the business of the institution smoothly. The treasure, sources said, using his influence asked bank authorities not to release payment for extra salary to the registrar. But the registrar managed to withdraw it.

Sources said most employees and officers granted extra salaries had succeeded in withdrawing their payments in connivance with treasury department officials.

Both registrar and treasure were not available for comment.