Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The monitoring body of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has paid a budget of millions to the country’s best ranked university, even before the budget was approved, Daily Times has learnt.

The HEC used to fund Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) millions of rupees in the form of budget 2016-17 while the amount was neither approved by the varsity’s Finance and Planning Commission nor by the Syndicate.

There are two supreme bodies in the varsity. They have power of legislation, policy and decision making. The bodies are called Finance and Planning Commission (F&PC) and the Syndicate respectively. The annual budget 2016-17 had been approved in the varsity last week while the HEC used to pay the university from June to date. The officials in the varsity said that the HEC did this practice against the rules and regulations.

According to the QAU Act 1973, financial matters including the annual budget could not become legal in the official papers without the nod of the above mentioned councils. The QAU act suggests that the initial draft of the annual budget was prepared by the concerned sections/departments in the varsity and would be presented before the F&PC for technical review.

The Council after reviewing the proposed budget draft, will forward it to the varsity’s Syndicate for final approval. After the recommendation of the Syndicate the budget has a legal status for getting the amount from the funding institution — the HEC.

The budgetary documents obtained by this correspondent reveal that Rs 1576.552 including non salary heads of expenditures amounting to Rs 978.644 were approved by the QAU in the meetings of the F&PC and the Syndicate held in the last week of August and the first week of September respectively.

The F&PC in the meeting, according to the documents, approved a dozen major agendas including daily wage rates, rent for visiting faculty houses, enhancement in the provision of loan advances, up-gradation of the ministerial posts, waiver of fee/dues for the children of officers in PBS-17 and above and several others items were also recommended for the Syndicate’s consideration.

The Syndicate meeting was held on September 2 at a local hotel. In chair with VC Javed Ashraf, the meeting was attended by its members, Member National Assembly (MNA), Arifa Khalid Parvez, Ex-MNA Mehreen Anwar Raja, Senator Farhatullah Baber, former Federal Minister Haji Muhammad Hanif Tayyab, Secretary Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training Muhammad Humayun, Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) Mukhtar Ahmed, QAU faculty members Waheed Chauhdry and Azhar Rizvi and acting registrar Sabir Khan.

An official familiar with the Apex Council proceedings said on condition of anonymity that another Rs 50 million had also been approved on the occasion. The documents available suggest that this amount was Rs 100 million in the previous budget 2015-16 and was rejected by the HEC for not mentioning the specifications or purpose of the demanded money.

“Instead of explaining the purpose of requesting budget amount, the QAU admn revived the amount to Rs 50 million and put it for “approval before this Syndicate,” said the official adding that the members particularly the Chairperson HEC, Mukhtar Ahmed, get annoyed over the reduction of money.

HEC spokesperson, Ayesha Ikram, added “The QAU has been released two monthly instalments — the first instalment was released on August 03, 2016 and the second on August 19, 2016”.

Chairperson Ahmed says in the example of good governance, all processes should be done before the time or at least in time. However, he said there was no illegality in the late approving of the budget.

When contacted, VC Ashraf said, it had been done as per prescribed criteria, adding that officials of the HEC including the chairperson were present at the Syndicate and F&PC sessions.