New Delhi: Two days after the Delhi High Court directed the Aam Aadmi Party government to release funds to pay salaries to teachers and staff of four Delhi-government funded colleges, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Friday said the special audit sanctioned by the government revealed financial irregularities in these colleges indicating a “big fraud” and “ghost appointments”.
The deputy chief minister, who holds the education portfolio, also said they were exploring legal options. “We have received the special audit report of five colleges that show financial irregularities in these colleges led to staff not being paid salaries,” he said.
According to the government, the audit report revealed that over ₹124 crore across five colleges were utilised without government approval. “The audit report also showed that these colleges created posts without getting approval from the government as the rules mandate. When the auditors asked for attendance register of these appointees, the colleges could not provide one indicating that there may be ‘ghost employees’,” Sisodia alleged on Friday. Laptops, equipment, and cars were brought without government approval, he added.
“These colleges have money and yet teaching and non-teaching staff are not being paid. The government will work towards ending the practice of violating the rules of grant,” said Sisodia, explaining that the government is only required to cover the “net deficit” in grants. This essentially means that the government would cover the difference of amount between all revenue sources in the colleges and total expenditure.
{{/usCountry}}“These colleges have money and yet teaching and non-teaching staff are not being paid. The government will work towards ending the practice of violating the rules of grant,” said Sisodia, explaining that the government is only required to cover the “net deficit” in grants. This essentially means that the government would cover the difference of amount between all revenue sources in the colleges and total expenditure.
{{/usCountry}}DU teachers have been protesting against the delay of disbursal of grants in the 12 government-funded colleges, which they said is the main cause behind pending salaries of teaching and non-teaching staff for months. The government attributed this delay in releasing funds to the alleged financial irregularities in these colleges.
In September, the government released funds for six of these 12 colleges. While the initial plea in the high court included all 12 Delhi government-funded colleges, the court deleted the names of eight from the memo of parties as two colleges had paid salaries till August and no employee from the remaining six had approached court. The remaining four are: Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, Bhagini Nivedita College, Aditi Mahavidyalaya Women’s College and Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies. On Friday, Sisodia said the audit report of two among these four colleges indicated financial irregularities.
Colleges which spent funds without any approval in the past three years are — Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College (₹49.88 crore), Keshav Mahavidyalaya (₹29.84 crore), Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies (₹16.52 crore), Bhagini Nivedita College (₹17.23 crore), and Maharishi Valmiki College (₹10.64 crore). Aditi Mahavidyalaya and Laxmibai College refused to share their books with the government, Sisodia said.
While Aditi Mahavidyalaya principal Mamta Sharma did not respond to requests for a comment, officials from the college, requesting anonymity, said that records were shown to special auditors. “However, the audit could not be completed as non-teaching staff could not come to college since they don’t have money to do so,” the official added. Laxmibai College principal Pratyush Vatsala was not available for a comment.
He also said that colleges collected money from fee and other sources as fixed deposits and hence have surplus funds – Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College (₹ 22.44 crore), Keshav Mahavidyalaya (₹9.38 crore), Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies (₹31.58 crore), Bhagini Nivedita College (₹2.38 crore), and Maharishi Valmiki College (₹30 lakh).
Colleges, however, maintain that funds from the Students Society Fund cannot be used for salary purposes. Hem Chand Jain, principal of DDU College, said, “We cannot comment unless we see the audit report and the FD’s in question are student society funds. High court orders state that we can’t spend this for salary purposes. As far as attendance is concerned, there are no provisions to record teachers’ attendance as per DU norms.”
Poonam Verma, principal of Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, said, “The central government’s CAG audit has taken place till 2018-19 and we have shown highest integrity. We have no knowledge where the current figure (of Rs 16.52 crore) is coming from. There is some misinformation which needs to be clarified because such a high office cannot be speaking without any basis. There is a communication gap.”
DU Dean of Colleges Balaram Pani said levying these allegations is an unfortunate incident on academics who run these colleges. “There has not been any misappropriation of funds as per the information collected by the university administration from these principals,” he said.
While principal of Bhagini Nivedita College did not respond to requests for a comment, principals of Keshav Mahavidyalaya college and Maharishi Valmiki college could not be reached for a comment.