Jagannath University rife with financial irregularities: UGC report
Jagannath University (JnU) is in hot water after a University Grants Commission (UGC) report uncovered a number of financial irregularities. During a review of JnU's revised budget for the ongoing 2023-2024 fiscal year and the main budget for 2024-25, the University Grants Commission identified 25 areas of such irregularities.
A glaring anomaly was found in the case of the registrar of the university, Md Ohiduzzaman. The report found that his salary was being paid at the second grade, which is higher than what he is entitled to. The national pay scale stipulates that autonomous institutions like JnU can only offer a maximum salary at the third grade.
The UGC report listed 25 areas of financial irregularities at JnU and provided recommendations to the university to fix these irregularities. The recommendations include directives to return the misspent funds to the university treasury, to follow UGC rules in the future, and to take other steps as necessary.
The investigators also found that JnU bought 13 vehicles (2 microbuses and 11 buses) in the 2019-20 fiscal year without following proper procedures for procurement. The cost of these unapproved vehicle purchases amount to Tk 5.58 crore.
The university was also found to have circumvented the rules to contractually appoint drivers and helpers, whereas no such provisions exist according to the government's or UGC's regulations. The report also said that JnU paid Tk 7.92 lakh to drivers and helpers in a single year to maintain the vehicles, which went against the rules.
According to the report, JnU spent too much money on books. The university paid teachers Tk 3 thousand per year as allowance for books, which is more than the government stipulated Tk 1200 per teacher. This led to a waste of over Tk 9 lakh.
The report revealed that the university even paid the fees for tests such as TOEFL, IELTS, and GRE on behalf of the teachers, and requested the university to refrain from doing so in the future.
The UGC found that JnU violated rules by paying daily wages of Tk 600 to employees during training. The rules say that daily wages can only be paid to employees who travel outside of Dhaka for training.
Additionally, it was found that JnU had paid the same person two honorariums for being both the guest and a participant in a training program. This is against UGC rules, which say that honorariums can only be paid to people who are not employed by the university.
The UGC also found that JnU had been moving money between different sectors of its budget, violating rules.
The report recommended that JnU should create an organogram, and set up a budget cell to deal with the fiscal issues. The report said that since JnU does not have a budget cell, budget-related information has not been properly stored and necessary data could not be supplied to the authorities.
Responding to the report, the JnU Vice-Chancellor, Prof Sadeka Halim, said that all these accusations and irregularities are related to past administrations.
"I too found many things that did not seem to be right when I first joined as the VC," she said.
She claimed to have begun making changes, including replacing long-serving proctorial bodies and initiating the process of appointing a new registrar.
"It's how we, the administration, are working for a change," Prof Sadeka Halim added.