UGC, universities urged not to squander public funds

December 6, 2011, 9:39 pm , The Island.

By Shamindra Ferdinando

The Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) has called for an explanation from the University Grants Commission (UGC) over the payment of Rs. 106 mn to UGC employees as language proficiency allowance.

The COPE, in its latest report tabled in parliament on Dec. 1, said that such payments had been contrary to public enterprises circulars. The report dealt with waste, corruption and irregularities in the public sector.

The COPE also faulted the UGC for including academic allowances in the computation of employees’ contributions to the ETF, EPF and gratuity. Responding to a query by The Island, COPE sources said that the practice didn’t comply with the circulars issued by the Commissioner General of Labour. The UGC should do away with this illegal practice forthwith.

For want of scrutiny on the part of the Higher Education Ministry, those in charge of the UGC and Universities had violated rules and regulations with impunity. In spite of the COPE taking up contentious issues with University authorities periodically, respective administrations had ignored advice, sources said.

A case in point, they said was the Sri Jayewardenepura University. Despite several reminders, it hadn’t submitted annual reports for 2008 and 2009. Although the audit and management committee of the University should have met at least once in every three months, the committee had met only twice each in 2009 and 2010. The COPE faulted Sri Jayewardenepura administration for spending Rs 3,010,188 on a waste water refining project without having the ownership of the land, where the project was situated, verified.

Commenting on a fund categorized as ‘Vice Chancellor’s Fund’, the COPE declared that there was no provision for such a fund in the University Act.

Due to failure on the part of the administration, the University had suffered a loss of Rs. 9.83 mn. Had the University acted swiftly, this amount could have been recovered from the consultancy firm for the collapse of the roof of the library building. The COPE has called for a report, including the names of those responsible for the losses from the University administration.

Inquiries also revealed that the university was yet to recover Rs. 69 mn from lecturers, who had breached agreements. The COPE has directed that in the future there should be provision in agreements to recover any dues from lecturers from their EPF in case of breach of agreements.

The COPE also blamed the university for acquiring land at Boralesgamuwa to put up a hostel without carrying out a proper survey. Due to this lapse, though the land had been acquired construction couldn’t go on due to drainage problem.

The COPE has also directed the UGC to submit a full list of all those lecturers who had breached agreements and bonds. According to COPE, the University of Moratuwa was yet to recover Rs. 17,789,658 from 28 lecturers.