V-C forms panel to bring transparency

ALLAHABAD UNIVERSITY (AU) Vice-Chancellor Prof Rajen Harshe has formed an 'Empowered Committee' that will strive to bring transparency into the utilisation of funds received by the varsity departments as grants from various funding agencies. It will also fix answerability about the funds' use.

The move follows the allegations of funds' misuse by the AU Zoology Department that was highlighted by HT Allahabad Live and led to an uproar at AU  besides an agitation by the students on the campus.

The fact-finding team will consist of Dean (Science) Prof Hari Prakash, Head of the Mathematics Department Prof Vindhyachal Rai and Botany Department's Prof PK Khare. AU CPIO  Prof Amrendra Singh informed that the VC has instructed the committee members to submit their report within the next two weeks.

As per the terms of reference, the committee will prescribe guidelines, rules, and procedures to ensure transparency and accountability based on the principles of collective responsibility with regard to utilisation of grants by the recipient departments. It will also suggest ways for physical verification of assets of the department procured by the grants and will be specifically mentioned by them.

The committee will prescribe rules for purchase price and purchase procedures, specification of purchased items, entry in stock register, certification by the competent authority or the body of the department about the satisfactory quality and functioning of the items purchased etc.

The terms of reference also say that the committee may issue guidelines that funds given under a particular head are used for activities and expenditure falling clearly under the domain of the particular head and will also consider and recommend that the report of the physical verification of the stocks at regular intervals (as prescribed by the committee) shall be passed to the Dean of the faculty concerned and the VC.

The terms also state that the committee may also consider prescribing guidelines to the effect that at any point of time, any person who is not a regular teacher/employee of the University will not be entrusted with any responsibility or role in the whole process of utilisation of grants.

The committee members have also been asked to feel free to invite or seek report from the HoD and / or any other teacher/teachers of Zoology Department.

The committee members have been asked to go about the whole exercise to facilitate finding quick answer of questions like— amount of grant and the name of the funding agency/period prescribed for utilisation of the grant/activities and items on which the grant is scheduled to be spent/name of teachers and non-teaching staff who are involved in the process with a mention of their specific roles, /details of entry in stock register and physical verification of stocks/providing for separate stock register for each particular grant— from an examination of records of Departmental purchase and grant utilisation procedure.