HEC violated rules in releasing grant to universities: AGP

The Auditor General of Pakistan has pointed out that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) did not follow laid down rules while releasing Rs 9.9 billion grant-in-aid to universities.
The AGP Audit Report for the year 2004-05 laid before the parliament revealed that the HEC had released Rs 9.9 billion grant-in-aid without obtaining audited statements.
It says that Para-207 of GFR-Vol-I provides that before making payment of any grant to any public body or institution, the sanctioning authority should obtain an audited statement of the accounts of the body or institution in order to see that the grant-in-aid is justified by the financial position of the grantee and ensure that the previous grant was spent for the purpose for which it was intended.
The HEC had released Rs 6,448.798 million to 53 universities as grant-in-aid during 2004-05. Out of this amount, Rs 6,062.747 million was released to 47 universities without obtaining audited statements of the grants released last year.
Similarly, Rs 3.548.498 million was released to 42 universities during 2003-04 without obtaining audited statements of the grant-in-aid released of the previous year.
As indicated above the purpose of obtaining audited statements is to verify the financial position of these institutions as well as to ensure whether the amount released had been utilised for the intended purpose. Therefore, the audit would insist that immediate steps should be taken to obtain these documents on priority.
In Departmental Account Committee (DAC) meeting held on August 3, 2006, the Committee directed the HEC that the requisite audit certificates should be obtained on priority.
Moreover, the audit report also pointed out non-adjustment of Rs 3.691 million released for sports activities. As per Rule-668 of FTR Vol-I adjustment of all advances is required immediately after completion of the assignment by submission of detailed accounts supported by vouchers or by refund, as may be necessary.
During the audit of HEC for the year 2004-05, it was observed that Rs 2,241,200 was drawn as advance for various sports activities but adjustment of these advances was yet to be made.