SARGODHA: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has decided to take action on an inquiry/audit conducted by the Higher Education Commission into the alleged malpractices, embezzlement and illegalities in establishment of various sub-campuses during two tenures of former vice chancellor of the University of Sargodha (UoS) from 2007 to 2015.

The university set up four sub-campuses under public-private partnership allegedly without seeking approval from the varsity syndicate in 2013 and also overlooked various illegalities, including collection of Rs10,000 from each student as tuition and admission fee, while the main campus received Rs3,000. These sub-campuses had been established in Mandi Bahauddin, a women campus in Faisalabad, one in Lahore and Lyallpur campus. The Faisalabad women campus was later merged into Lyallpur college. Moreover, the sub-campuses hired unskilled and unqualified faculty.

The audit report further added that the four sub-campuses as well as the one in Gujranwala also caused a loss of over Rs1 billion to the main campus as they were defaulters of over Rs300 million besides liable for a penalty of Rs800 million under the head of royalty.

An employee of UoS on condition of anonymity said the sub-campuses not only charged heavy fee, but also received large amounts for issuance of bogus and fake result cards. He said now that the NAB had taken notice of the embezzlement and conducted an inquiry, not only the embezzled amount will be recovered, but the real culprits taken to task.

He further added that large funds were misappropriated under the head of research as UoS claimed to have produced seedless kinno (citrus) and sugarcane that would yield extra produce. This research was actually conducted by the citrus centre of the provincial agriculture department and when the fraud came to light, the vice chancellor managed to brush the issue under the carpet.

Similarly, massive funds were also misappropriated under the head of production of mineral water, named Khushab, which did not work out. In order to curtail losses, the university management stopped the water’s commercial marketing.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2018