Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Jan 16: The accountant general (AG) has pointed out in a draft audit the state government has granted grant-in-aid (GIA) of `52.38crore to several colleges and universities in the state bypassing established norms.
“A checking of 65 college records showed that 76 lecturers in 35 colleges were granted GIA out of the way though they did not complete the minimum five-year period by June 1, 1994 as required under GIA Order, 1994. This led to inadmissible payment of `35.93crore from October 1998 to September 2014,” AG Amar Patnaik wrote to Chief Secretary GC Pati, a copy of which is available with Orissa POST.
The AG said eight lecturers who were not qualified as per UGC guidelines were drawing salary despite a Supreme Court ruling in this regard, which resulted in irregular and excess payment of `3.71crore from January 1986 to September 2014.
The AG further said the aided colleges were fraudulently showing that 15 posts of lecturers were full time and had been filled up for five years resulting in irregular and excess expenditure of `7.50crore from June 1994 to September 2014.
“Though the State Selection Board (SSB) remained defunct since 1997, 23 out of 31 staff and officers deployed therein were not re-deployed and continued without any work for which an expenditure of `5.24crore was incurred towards their pay and allowances from January 1997 to March 2014,” Patnaik pointed out in its letter.
Earlier, in a draft report, the AG criticised the government for the poor standard of higher secondary education (Plus II) in Orissa.
Notably, the AG has been auditing the performance of higher education department for the first time. The draft audit would be part of the CAG report on the ‘‘functioning of higher education department’’ for the year ending March 2014.