Ex-VC, registrar booked for fund scam DVAC Probes Annamalai Univ Case
Siddharth.Prabhakar@timesgroup.com
Chennai:24.10.2018
Five years afterdiscovering widespread financial and administrative mismanagement of Chidambaram-based Annamalai University, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-corruption (DVAC) has registered a corruption case and booked M Ramanathan, vice-chancellor from 2008-2013, and M Rathinasabapathy, registrar during the period.
In the FIR registered on October 16, the DVAC detailed the misdoings. The agency found that the university deducted the employees’ contribution towards Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) from their salaries, but did not deposit it in the pension fund. “The subscription of CPS was made only on paper. Cheques made to deposit the money in the fund account were treated as uncashed cheques in the account,” it said. The sum of unrealised cheques was ₹40.59 crore as on July 31, 2013; the pension contribution received was ₹68.98 crore. The university took a loan of ₹43.26 crore to meet the expenses.
Under government rules, the university is also supposed to make an equal amount of contribution to the pension fund, but didn’t make it.
So where did this money go? Hundreds of crores of rupees diverted in this manner were used to pay salaries of the excess staff recruited over the years by the university, in violation of University Grants Commission (UGC) mandated rules. For instance, in 1996, the university had sanctioned non-teaching staff strength of 1,110. It jumped to 9,135 in 2012.
Similar excess recruitments were done in the teaching posts as well, despite decrease in enrolment of students. “In 2009-10, no student was enrolled in information centres that had 206 staff,” the DVAC said. This is what led to the unmitigated financial disaster in the University, which was taken over by the government in 2013.
The DVAC also found that fundamental rules of pay fixation and promotion were violated by revision once every seven years, which plunged the university into crisis.
The VC and registrar, who control all the funds of the university, also made several diversions from general accounts to self-financing accounts, which was a violation.
Highly placed sources in the government say the amount diverted could be to the tune of ₹1,182 crore and that the present case was just the tip of the iceberg.
In April 2013, the then Tamil Nadu Governor K Rosiah suspended Ramanathan based on an audit report, which stated that university funds had been diverted to a hospital, payment of high salaries and excess appointments.
The DVAC has booked a case of criminal breach of trust and corruption against the two former officials.
Siddharth.Prabhakar@timesgroup.com
Chennai:24.10.2018
Five years afterdiscovering widespread financial and administrative mismanagement of Chidambaram-based Annamalai University, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-corruption (DVAC) has registered a corruption case and booked M Ramanathan, vice-chancellor from 2008-2013, and M Rathinasabapathy, registrar during the period.
In the FIR registered on October 16, the DVAC detailed the misdoings. The agency found that the university deducted the employees’ contribution towards Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) from their salaries, but did not deposit it in the pension fund. “The subscription of CPS was made only on paper. Cheques made to deposit the money in the fund account were treated as uncashed cheques in the account,” it said. The sum of unrealised cheques was ₹40.59 crore as on July 31, 2013; the pension contribution received was ₹68.98 crore. The university took a loan of ₹43.26 crore to meet the expenses.
Under government rules, the university is also supposed to make an equal amount of contribution to the pension fund, but didn’t make it.
So where did this money go? Hundreds of crores of rupees diverted in this manner were used to pay salaries of the excess staff recruited over the years by the university, in violation of University Grants Commission (UGC) mandated rules. For instance, in 1996, the university had sanctioned non-teaching staff strength of 1,110. It jumped to 9,135 in 2012.
Similar excess recruitments were done in the teaching posts as well, despite decrease in enrolment of students. “In 2009-10, no student was enrolled in information centres that had 206 staff,” the DVAC said. This is what led to the unmitigated financial disaster in the University, which was taken over by the government in 2013.
The DVAC also found that fundamental rules of pay fixation and promotion were violated by revision once every seven years, which plunged the university into crisis.
The VC and registrar, who control all the funds of the university, also made several diversions from general accounts to self-financing accounts, which was a violation.
Highly placed sources in the government say the amount diverted could be to the tune of ₹1,182 crore and that the present case was just the tip of the iceberg.
In April 2013, the then Tamil Nadu Governor K Rosiah suspended Ramanathan based on an audit report, which stated that university funds had been diverted to a hospital, payment of high salaries and excess appointments.
The DVAC has booked a case of criminal breach of trust and corruption against the two former officials.
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