SPPU agrees to ‘forensic audit’ after senate member alleges financial irregularities citing CAG findings

PUNE: The Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) grudgingly agreed to do a forensic audit of its accounts after a senate member alleged multiple instances of financial and administrative irregularities over the past several years.

Citing the purported findings of an ongoing audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), senate member Vinayak Ambekar claimed that the varsity favoured unqualified contractors, spent exorbitantly and misappropriated funds on three different projects.

He particularly pointed fingers at the Pune University's former vice-chancellor Nitin Karmalkar and the head of its technology department for alleged irregularities without explicitly naming them.

Speaking at the varsity's senate meeting on Tuesday, Ambekar, a BJP leader and an elected member of SPPU's Finance and Accounts Committee, also criticised Karmalkar for periodically issuing executive orders to increase the spending limit for himself and other university authorities. Through this practice, according to Ambekar, the former VC assumed undue powers and violated the Supreme Court's directive against re-promulgation of ordinances without converting them into statutes.

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SPPU senate meeting

Ambekar’s allegations led to an uproar on the senate floor, with the members demanding a time-bound forensic audit and immediate suspension of the technology department head. While the university administration initially only promised to look into the allegations and "take appropriate action", VC Suresh Gosavi gave in and assured a forensic audit to be completed by March 31 of the next year.

Ambekar highlighted several irregularities related to the construction of a data analytics and tribal sub-plan (TSP) planning centre for the state's Tribal Research and Training Institute (TRTI), purchasing electric vehicles through the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) funds and setting up an electronic scoring system at the university's shooting range.

The claims are based on the preliminary findings of an unpublished CAG audit of the office of SPPU vice chancellor over the five-year period from 2017 to 2022 which coincides with Karmalkar's term.

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Pune University: CAG audit findings

According to the senate member, the CAG auditors found that the varsity, in 2018, had contracted the only bidder for the Rs 6 crore tribal data centre bidder without reissuing tenders to attract more bidders. The audit is also said to have found that the university spent at a rate of over Rs 33.3 lakh and Rs 22.84 lakh for UPS and AC when it had actually purchased the two items at a fraction of the cost - Rs 3.79 lakh and under Rs 2 lakh, respectively.

Despite the state government requiring the completion of the project in a year's time, the centre is yet to be operational. This is because, according to Ambekar, the technology department head, who was leading the work, in 2022, informed the tribal development department authorities about a state directive to not migrate data without constructing a disaster recovery centre and sought an additional Rs 6.65 crore to build it, throwing the project into limbo.

The varsity is also accused of procuring an 'electric vehicle based e-mobility system' under RUSA, despite there being no record of approval from the state project directorate, RUSA or the union education ministry's project approval board for it. The auditors also found that the firm contracted for this work lacked prior experience in the e-mobility sector. In another possible irregularity, the work order was issued days before the tender was approved.

Ambekar also alleged that, during his tenure, Karmalkar kept issuing executive orders to amend varsity statutes (by-laws) allowing him and other university authorities to spend large sums of money not earmarked in the budget. While the original statute, issued in 1983, puts a cap of Rs 50,000 and Rs 25,000 for recurring and non-recurring expenditure by VC, the name amendment increased this limit to Rs 12.5 lakh and Rs 25 lakh, respectively.

"The Maharashtra Public Universities Act 2016 allows the vice chancellors to issue such orders during exigencies. These ordinances should be converted into statutes through the approval of statutory bodies lest they expire in six months. The VC, however, issued orders bearing the same language eight to nine times to perpetually benefit from it," said Ambekar.

He added that the varsity administration would break down the university work order into smaller chunks in order to avoid procedural requirements meant for larger projects. "CAG criticised the university competitive bidding process, as mandated in RUSA guidelines," he said.

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Ambekar said that while CAG has asked the university to address these findings earlier this year, it's yet to respond. "We found these irregularities when the auditor sent these queries to all members of the Finance and Accounts Committee," he said.

‘Done to help university’: Former SPPU VC

Karmalkar defended his use of executive powers as a means to expedite funding for time-sensitive projects and to help university departments to work more seamlessly.

“Increasing the spending limit doesn't mean bypassing any of the procedural requirements. It's not a unilateral decision of VC, either. The proposal for VC order comes from the finance committee and the finance officers and other officials are also involved. The process and other details are determined by experts from the respective departments. Payments are made only after the duly submission of utilisation bills and procurement,” he said.

He pointed out that the original spending limits were decided decades ago and are insufficient for the requirements of the day. “We wanted to help the departments short on budget and empower them to meet their sundry needs without having to go with a begging bowl to the purchase committee every time,” he said.

The former VC remained unfazed by the forensic audit decision. “I never enriched myself. It was done only to help the university,” he asserted.