CAG to probe three GHPS schools for not paying salaries to teachers, staff

The Comptroller and Auditor General is set to probe the accounts of three schools under the Guru Harkishan Public School chain it refused to respond to a slew of notices on violations by the capital's Directorate of Education. Charu Sudan Kasturi reports.

The Comptroller and Auditor General is set to probe the accounts of three schools under the Guru Harkishan Public School chain it refused to respond to a slew of notices on violations by the capital's Directorate of Education (DoE).

HT Image

The probes are likely to be conducted against the India Gate, Vasant Vihar and Loni branches of the Guru Harkishan Public School (GHPS), sources in the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) confirmed to HT on Monday.

"The documents we have detailing alleged violations by the GHPS in running the schools appear serious and we hope to begin the probe soon," an officer said.

The probe will focus on charges that the GHPS is refusing to pay its teachers and staff salaries due to them, under the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission, binding on all Delhi schools under the Delhi School Education Act.

Teachers and staff members from schools across the chain have been protesting complaining against the alleged violation, but a combination of Delhi and gurudwara politics is understood to be behind the GHPS not paying its employees their dues.

Teachers in several branches have held formal protests too.

CAG sources said that apart from the charges of violating the Delhi School Education Act by not paying teachers and staff their dues, the probe would also investigate other allegations of financial irregularities by the GHPS administration.

"We have received several other allegations of irregularities," a CAG source said.

"We will probe those because while the GHPS is not a government institution, it cannot violate government norms it has agreed to abide by, in its memorandum of association with the government and its regulators," the source added.

The DoE is understood to have given its nod to the CAG probe and education minister Arvinder Singh Lovely is keen not to be seen defending wrongdoing by the GHPS.

The GHPS schools are run by the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee.