Rs 5.6 billion worth funds unutilised by State universities in 2017

The Auditor General’s 2017 report, has found that funds of state universities worth Rs 5.6 billion had gone unutilised and had been lying idle in nearly 800 bank accounts.

This had been revealed in the fourth report of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE), submitted to Parliament yesterday (Nov 7), the Parliament’s Communication Department said in a statement.

The report had cited the failure to make the required budgetary allocations after a proper assessment, as a main reason for this situation.

Another reason outlined was the failure to send academic staffers for local and international research conferences, the statement added.

The COPE had observed that if these funds had been used, the debt liable for each citizen could have been reduced as a result of cutting down annual budgetary allocations made to each sector.

Meanwhile, the report had pointed that student intake for state universities had reduced to 38.7 percent by 2017/18 when compared to the intake of 45 percent in 2013/14.

This had been as a result of failure to fill vacancies created by local and foreign students.

In addition, the report observed that the government could recover Rs 836.1 million from 519 instances of violating employment bonds.

Further, COPE had found that no action had been taken against lecturers who fail to submit research papers despite obtaining research grants from the government.

The report also raised caution on issues which could arise due to problems concerning the lands and constructions of state universities and institutes.

Another observation in the report was that allowances had been paid for academic employees, without monitoring their times of entry and exit.

The vacancies of state university employees too had not been filled in a proper manner, the report added.

It was also found that the Establishment code of the University Grants Commission and higher educational institutions had not been revised for 34 years.

The COPE observed that some employees had drawn double salaries by being employed in two state universities, while receiving allowances and taking annual leave in 2017.

The COPE, led by parliamentarian Sunil Handunnetti, had declared the recommendations of the Auditor General on state universities to be implemented as instructions, and to be debated in Parliament.