ICAA to write to Bihar govt, CAG, V-Cs regarding financial mismanagement in varsities

Patna high court, earlier this month, disposed of a petition seeking a probe into the non-maintenance of annual accounts as mandated under law by the state universities of Bihar with a direction to the petitioner to approach the authorities concerned within four weeks

The Indian Chartered Accountants Association (ICAA) will write to the Raj Bhavan, Bihar government, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) as well as vice-chancellors of all state universities and other stakeholders regarding alleged financial mismanagement and ad hocism in the institutions in the light of a Patna high court direction.

Representational image. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Patna high court, earlier this month, disposed of a petition seeking a probe into the non-maintenance of annual accounts as mandated under law by the state universities of Bihar with a direction to the petitioner to approach the authorities concerned within four weeks for redressal of his grievances.

“The authorities shall consider and dispose of the petition expeditiously by a reasoned and speaking order preferably within a period of three months from the date of filing,” said the bench comprising chief justice Sanjay Karol and justice Sanjay Kumar on a petition from Sanjay Kumar Jha, president of ICAA.

The petitioner, a chartered accountant, had prayed for a probe by a high-level committee of experts into “mass irregularities, lack of proper information, mismanagement of allocated fund, UGC grant, misappropriation of grants meant for various schemes of the Centre, non-maintenance of annual accounts, as directed by the UGC, prescribed rules, regulations and laws.”

The bench has given the petitioner the liberty to approach the court, if the need so arises, and request priority listing of the matter. “We have not expressed any opinion on merits and all issues are open,” it observed.

Citing CAG reports, the petitioner, who made all V-Cs, the Centre and state governments as well as the University Grants Commission parties in the case, also underlined that compliance of Income Tax laws as well as other laws applicable to universities and colleges to ensure financial benefit had left a lot to be desired, causing a huge loss to the government.

Several university teachers in Bihar were in a fix earlier this year after receiving notice from the income tax department regarding identification of high value information, which did not appear to be in line with their income tax return filed for assessment year 2020-21 (relating to financial year 2019-20). They were asked to revise their ITR and submit an online response on the compliance portal, while the teachers maintained the high value information was their provident fund deposit, which the universities in Bihar deposit in the savings bank account as an old practice, not in the general provident fund (GPF) account, to avail IT relief.

“A loss of ₹12 crore was reported earlier in JP University (Chapra), which is shocking. There were no proper registers of the salary, pension, allowances and advance paid or to be paid by the college and universities maintained in electronic or other prescribed forms. The balance sheet (along with fixed asset register), income and expenditure account (pursuant to ICDS as notified by Central government) of universities and colleges as per accounting standards, guidance note, rules prescribed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) were not found to be prepared,” the petitioner said.

Jha said that the association had approached the authorities earlier also, but after lukewarm response it approached the court. “Now we will submit petitions to all of them again in the light of the court order. We have got four weeks’ time,” he added.