KARACHI, Feb 19: Following the complaint that the students admitted to degree classes recently at two colleges were overcharged on account of fees, the Sindh education department has constituted a committee to conduct a detailed audit of the colleges’ accounts.

Sources in the Sindh education department said that a committee headed by additional secretary education (planning and development) had been tasked to look into the financial accounts of the S M Government Arts and Commerce College No 1 and the S M Govt Arts and Commerce College (evening). The source added that the committee was required to submit its report to the education secretary within 15 days.

It was learnt that the officials concerned were informed that students admitted to the degree classes of the new session had been charged excessive amounts in negation to the prescribed government fee schedule. It was claimed that a good number of students had been charged Rs550 to 700 extra through bank challans.

The students were required to deposit a lump sum including the additional payment, as government and non-government funds, in the college account. During the initial enquiries, the colleges’ authorities admitted the problem, and maintained that this was all due to some misunderstanding and the excess money collected from students would be adjusted against some other charges which included enrolment or examination fees to be submitted to the university in future.

However, according to sources, the clarifications by the colleges failed to satisfy the high-ups and that’s why an enquiry committee comprising officials of the Sindh education department has been formed for a detailed audit of the government and non-government accounts of the two colleges.

In the meantime, when contacted, one senior official at the college said that the students were overcharged by the account section personnel on two heads, ie, enrolment and computer fund.

In view of the dates for enrolment as announced by the university, the clerical staff deemed it appropriate to collect the enrolment fees along with the college fee so that wouldn’t be bothered with bank dealing, the official added.

He further claimed that Commerce Part II students were charged wrongly on account of the computer fund as their was no computer teaching at the degree level. He said that as soon as the high-ups of the colleges came to know of this, the charging of the computer fund to the tune of Rs550 per student was also done away with immediately.

The college official added that the students of part-II, who were overcharged, could either get the excess amount refunded or leave it with the colleges, to adjusted for the varsity’s examination fee.