Sisodia orders financial audit of women’s college

Sisodia orders financial audit of women’s college

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:  02.07.2020

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia has ordered financial auditing of Delhi University’s Bhagini Nivedita College, stating that the government has received several complaints against it.

In an order to the secretary of higher education, Sisodia wrote that he had “received multiple complaints regarding financial irregularities in Bhagini Nivedita College, one of the colleges fully funded by the government of NCT of Delhi”.

Sisodia, who is also the state education minister, said the complaints had come from different stakeholders such as students, parents and teachers. They “allege financial irregularities in tendering processes, hiring of a car for the principal, buying of unnecessary items not needed in an educational institution, etc,” he added.

The matter is serious and the directorate of higher education should immediately get the college accounts of last two years audited, “preferably by a CAG-empanelled auditor”, Sisodia said. A compliance report will have to be submitted in 15 days. “Strongest action must be taken against officials concerned if any irregularities are found in the audit,” he said.

Despite repeated attempts, Charu Sharma, the principal of the women’s college didn’t comment. A senior DU official, however, claimed the auditing had been announced to force the college to accept the government’s governing body (GB) nominee. “The current acting principal has been around for only a year. The government should have done auditing earlier if they had proof of financial irregularities from the past two years,” the official said.

A Delhi government official said financial irregularities in the college were well known and the government was acting on complaints. “This is not related to the GB formation. But it is likely that the college did not allow its formation as they were worried GB would ask for the accounts. That would have been problematic for the college authorities,” he said.

A DU OFFICIAL SAYS

The government should have done the auditing earlier if they have proof of financial irregularities for the past two years