ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has begun an investigation into alleged corruption worth billions of rupees at the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU).

Several senior officials, both retired and serving, of the varsity were allegedly involved in corruption and NAB has sought a complete record of the issue from the university’s management.

According to a NAB spokesman, the bureau had received complaints regarding irregularities and corruption at the university and they were being verified. “Complaints against AIOU’s management are being verified and relevant records have been sought,” the spokesman said.

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The vice chancellor of the university, Dr Shahid Siddiqui, claimed that he was not aware of the details of the alleged corruption which might have been committed before he assumed charge of the office. Sources in the bureau said some senior officials of AIOU were allegedly found to have been embezzling funds for development work, discrepancies in recruitments and selling recycled waste papers.

Javed Akhtar, the spokesman for the university, said NAB was investigating a case against former vice chancellor Nazir Ahmed Sangi which related to charges of unlawful admissions of students, adding that it was a Rs3.5 million case and was referred to NAB by Mr Sangi himself in 2012.

It was learnt that millions of

rupees were still being siphoned off from the amount generated by the varsity through the sale of recycle/waste paper.

A source claimed that the university sold more than Rs2 billion worth of paper from a paper mill in Lahore without meeting the required process and after publishing its own books, the AIOU sold the waste paper.

A contractor who was collecting the waste paper from the university was paying Rs0.5 million to Rs0.6 million for many years causing a loss of millions of rupees to the varsity because the new contractor paid Rs5 million for the same bulk of waste paper this year.

One of the allegations against the management of the AIOU is that it committed misappropriation of funds in printing books every year.

A group of varsity employees have been suggesting that the AIOU should have its own foundation which could be established through available surplus funds. If the university has a foundation, they said, the university could establish its own paper mill and save millions of rupees every year.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2015