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Centre flags 200% variable pay to IIM Rohtak director, institute denies wrongdoing: Report
The audit report submitted to the ministry flagged that variable pay component cannot be more than a certain percentage of salary.
The ministry of education wrote to the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Rohtak raising objections to findings by its Internal Audit Wing (IAW) that found the institute had paid around 200% of variable pay to its director Dheeraj Sharma from the financial year 2018-19 to 2020-21, The Indian Express has found.
The audit wing found that variable pay released by the institute was around 200% of Sharma's fixed salary in his capacity as IIM Rohtak's director. Its report found that the formula adopted by the institute was “void” and went against financial prudence as variable pay can only be a percentage of a person's total salary.
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The report also flagged to the ministry that the institute board approved Sharma's variable pay component before the institute's rules were notified under the IIM Act.
The board also considered the institute's financial health while approving variable pay, but the audit report flagged to the ministry that “financial health of the institute was irrationally inflated by adding unspent grants-in-aid and the interest earned thereon into the corpus fund of the institute.”
The institute in response to The Indian Express denied any wrongdoing in the matter. It claimed to have followed the IIM Act and said the institute paid Sharma only after IIM Rohtak's rules were notified under the act.
It claimed that the payment was approved with complete consensus of all board members and the ministry was informed about the same one -and-a-half years ago. The board secretary also claimed that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) did not find any discrepancies after due examination.
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The director is already under government scrutiny for allegedly misrepresenting his educational qualifications to secure his term as IIM Rohtak’s director in 2017. The institute's board approved his candidature for a second term in February 2022, despite objections by the ministry's representative. The government had acknowledged the issue during a hearing in Punjab and Haryana High Court in March 2022, but only after Sharma completed his first term.
The alleged financial discrepancies were found by the audit wing, when tasked by the ministry to probe following a complaint received by President Droupadi Murmu, the Visitor of all IIMs in India.
