350 crores as savings: Move to avoid auditing at technical university

KOCHI: The Finance Standing Committee of the University Syndicate has recommended that the state government’s auditing office at the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, which has savings of around Rs 350 crore, should be terminated. There is suspicion that there is some mystery behind the attempt to terminate auditing at an institution that has such an amount.

There is no other university in Kerala that has such an amount in savings. The state finance department informed the university that this recommendation cannot be approved. The university authorities had sent the recommendation of the committee, of which former MP Dr. PK Biju is a member, to the audit department. They had also forwarded it to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

In a letter sent to the university registrar the other day, Finance Under-Secretary Elsy George stated that under the Kerala Local Fund Audit Act, the auditing of all universities in the state is vested in the State Audit Department and the auditor is appointed by the government.

Only affiliation and examination management

1. Apart from granting affiliation and conducting examinations, there is no significant activity in the technical university. Other universities have extensive campuses and study departments. Here, only the M.Tech course is offered to sixty people.

2. The main expenses are only the salaries of about sixty permanent employees and the same number of contract employees and the software maintenance cost of about Rs. 90 lakhs per month.

3. All the positions like Vice Chancellor, Pro VC, Registrar, Controller of Examination, Research Dean are temporary. Even the headquarters in the College of Engineering premises in Thiruvananthapuram is temporary. It does not have its own building or other facilities.

"The attempt to avoid auditing is part of a move to pave the way for massive financial fraud. There are syndicate members in the technical university who are taking TA of up to 15 lakhs. There will be more such moves."

-R. S. Sasikumar

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