₹700cr fraudulently disbursed to staff of Maha colleges; HC seeks answers

The Bombay high court (HC) on Friday directed the state’s principal accountant general (audits) to enquire how more than ₹700 crore was fraudulently disbursed to

The Bombay high court (HC) on Friday directed the state’s principal accountant general (audits) to enquire how more than ₹700 crore was fraudulently disbursed to thousands of non-teaching staff , in addition to their fixed salaries, in six universities across Maharashtra after 2014.

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The order came after advocate-general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni on Thursday told the court that under the guise of changing the “nomenclature” of certain non-teaching posts, the pay scales of the posts were increased and salaries were drawn accordingly, after fraudulently obtaining approvals from the higher and technical education department.

A division bench of justice SC Dharmadhikari and justice RI Chagla on Friday told the state to provide copies of the interim report of a special squad, which investigated the purported fraud, either to the unions or representatives of staff members of the six universities.

Two senior officials from the principal accountant general’s office will hear the higher and technical education department and the staff representatives, and submit their report to the government, the court said. The whole process, which has to be completed by April 15, will be supervised by a senior official from the accountant general’s office.

The bench has restrained the higher and technical education department from recovering any excess amount paid to the staff members of universities till then.

According to an affidavit filed by the higher and technical education department on Thursday, thousands of non-teaching staff members of Savitribai Phule Pune University, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Shivaji University in Kolhapur, North Maharashtra University in Jalgaon, Sant Gadgebaba University in Amravati, and Gondwana University in Gadchiroli have taken undue benefit of the fraud.

Kumbhakoni told HC that after the state decided to introduce a new staffing pattern in 2014, these six universities sent proposals to change the nomenclature of several non-teaching posts to a desk officer in the higher and technical education department. The desk officer obtained approvals for the proposals from the higher authorities on the grounds that there would be no additional financial burden on the state, and because of this, approval of the finance department was not sought.

However, the universities not only changed nomenclature of the posts, they also increased the pay-scale for the posts. Thus, although the non-teaching staff and their duties remained unchanged, they suddenly started getting higher pay, said Kumbhakoni. “The total excess amount paid is more than ₹700 crore,” he said.

The affidavit was in response to petitions filed by bodies representing employees of Savitribai Phule Pune University and Shivaji University, and some individual employees, who challenged a December 17, 2018 government resolution (GR) issued by the higher and technical education department. According to the GR, a squad was appointed to investigate the matter and recover the excess dues. The GR was issued after the finance department, in October 2017, realised that something was wrong in disbursal of salaries to non-teaching staff of the six universities. This came after other university employees started demanding higher pay-scales at par with the non-teaching staff members of six universities. The finance department then asked the higher and technical education department to investigate the matter.

The investigating squad submitted its interim report recently, revealing how the fraud was perpetrated by bypassing prevailing procedure – of seeking approval of the finance department for every proposal involving financial implications — and how excess amounts have been drawn from the state exchequer.