MULTAN: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has directed the administration of Bahauddin Zakariya University to submit the audit reports of years 2012 to 2016 and comments over alleged embezzlement and misuse of authority by officials, including vice-chancellor (VC), treasurer, registrar and distance education director.

The FIA took action on July 28 on a plea by Prof Dr Muhammad Ishaque Fani, head of the directorate of distance education (DDE), which stated that six directorate of distance education were established in various universities on the direction of the Higher Education Commission in 2009 while classes in the BZU began in five disciplines in 2009-10.

He stated there were only 110 students and the income of the directorate was Rs1.3 million against the expenditures of Rs2.5 million when he was appointed the DDE director on Oct 20, 2011.

He said that for admissions in 2012, the university opened two accounts for depositing the fee which were operated by the treasurer (director finance) of the university so that record of income be managed.

He stated that during his four-year tenure as director, the total income of the DDE was Rs2.4 billion against total expenditures of Rs593.095 million.

He stated that he was removed on Jan 06, 2016 from the directorship by VC Dr Tahir Amin and Dr Azra Asghar Ali succeeded him.

He alleged that the owners of private institutions approached the VC, former social sciences dean Dr Ayaz Muhammad Rana and Dr Azra for stopping admissions to the distance learning programmes, consequently for the last two years, admissions to the DDE had been stopped to the DDE.

He stated that the university had been facing deficit and a more than Rs1.6 billion loss for the last two years due to stopping admissions to the DDE. In 2016-2017, the university income was Rs7.25 billion which had been reduced to Rs5.11 billion this year.

He stated that as per self-supporting programme, criteria approved by the syndicate, 40 per cent of the share from the DDE income went to the university treasury and the remaining 60 percent was for the DDE expenditures.

He stated that the syndicate had approved to pay extra remuneration of 80 programmes to the director at Rs2,800 per programme per month and their staff at Rs7,200, the VC at Rs1,000 and his staff at Rs1,000, the registrar and his staff at Rs2,500, the treasurer and his staff at Rs3,500, controller and his staff at Rs2,000, the audit officer and his staff at Rs2,000, the resident officer and his staff at Rs500 from the 60 percent share of the DDE conditionally to perform their duties on Saturday and Sunday.

He stated that as per the decision of the syndicate, the extra remuneration could only be paid if the payable amount was available in the 60 percent share of the DDE otherwise no extra/additional remuneration will be paid.

He said that as per bank statements, after his removal from the office, the total income was only Rs128 million, of which Rs76.8 million was the share of the DDE.

He alleged that full remunerations were paid to the staff despite a low income and more expenditures, which was sheer embezzlement, misappropriation of funds, misuse of authority and corruption while except Dr Azra and his staff all other officers and their staff did not perform their duties on Saturday and Sunday.

He said that the syndicate on July 23, 2016 had reduced the remunerations and decided that maximum ceiling for officers of BPS 17 to 22 would not be exceeded from Rs75,000 and maximum ceiling for staff BPS 1-16 would not be exceeded from 1.5 basic pay per month but the officers concerned and their staff had drawn remuneration at old rate till Dec 31, 2016 and more than Rs6 million was paid illegally.

He said that though many programmes had been concluded but the officers concerned and their staff were still drawing remuneration of 80 programmes.

He stated that the university remained closed due to security concerns from May 27, 2016 to Sept 2, 2016 but payments were released to the teaching and other staff for this period as well.

He also identified other irregularities and demanded action against the authorities.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2017