New Delhi: Deputy Chief Minister Shri Manish Sisodia held an online press conference today where he pointed out a huge misappropriation in the accounts of the six Delhi University colleges where Delhi govt had initiated an independent audit. He said the AAP government stands together with the teachers in this time of difficulty and it is important for everyone to understand how the DU administration has mismanaged funds given by Delhi Government. He said, “The Delhi Government has provided enough funds to these colleges for paying the salaries but in thier initial observation report, the auditors have found that those funds are being directed elsewhere rather than paying the salaries to the teachers. Projected salaries for this academic year is 300 crores and Delhi government has provided sufficient funds to the colleges under the pattern of assistance”.
Deputy CM said, “Teachers are not getting their salaries despite the Delhi government providing timely grants. Few teachers came to meet me and shared their concerns about salary payment. They shared that there is a need of proper audit of the college funds and suspected that funds are diverted towards non-salary expenses. We wanted to get at the bottom of this, as there could be a case of fund misappropriation. Therefore, the Delhi government started a special audit of these colleges. We asked the names of the auditors from CAG and started the process of auditing these colleges from CAG empanelled auditors. In the first week of September, six colleges were audited by them. Yesterday, we received an initial observation report from the auditors and some shocking revelations have come out”.
It was observed in these reports that colleges have kept huge amount of money as fixed deposits rather than paying the salaries of their staff. He pointed out that Keshav Mahavidyalaya has 10.52 crores INR as fixed deposit. He questioned that if they have so much money, why are they not paying salaries to their teachers. Deputy CM said, “The salary grant paid by Delhi government to Keshav Mahavidyalaya was 10.92 crores INR in the year 2014-15 and last year the government paid 27.9 crores INR. Within five years, their salary grants have almost tripled. Even after receiving so much amount, they are not paying salaries to their teachers”
Shri Manish Sisodia further added, “The closing balance of Bhagini Nivedita college shows that currently they have around 2.5 crores INR as fixed deposits in their accounts. The salary grant paid to Bhagini Nivedita in the year 2014-15 was around 8.4 crores INR and last year it was increased to 18 crores INR. It is surprising that they are claiming lack of funds and at the same time, not cooperating with the auditors also.” Deputy CM Manish Sisodia said, “Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies didn’t even provide their audited balance sheets to the auditors. However, it was found that they had around 3.5 crores INR in their balance sheet in year 2018-19. On top of that, they have 10.45 crores INR in fixed deposits. Even after having close to 14 crores INR with them, Delhi university and college administration is blaming Delhi government for not providing funds. This is highly unacceptable”
As the auditors started asking more questions around the fund utilisation and fixed deposits, the college administration stopped co-operating with the auditors. It was also found that there is no audit done on the fees collected by the students under different heads. Different college administrations are inappropriately spending the amount collected by students. In one case, the college administration donated an amount of 25 lakhs INR without following the due process. Deputy CM Sisodia said, “These people are playing with the lives of their own staff members. AAP government stands together with the faculty and students of DU. But it seems like the DU administration is singing the tunes of BJP and is behaving like BJP’s party office. They are only focused on blaming Delhi government. Under the pattern of assistance, it is clearly mentioned that provisioning of grant will be made only on net deficit basis. In reality, these colleges are having surplus amount and yet they are not paying the due salaries of their hardworking teachers. This is criminal and wouldn’t be tolerated”.
