PU audit report exposes irregularities in payments

Amarjot Kaur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 29

Adhering to the orders of the Local Audit Department, UT Administration, the post audit of PU's Pension Corpus Fund accounts was conducted between March 20, 2006, and March 31, 2016, for the first time since its inception, recently. Under the supervision of Surinder Pal Singh, Assistant Controller (Local Audit), an audit team found several irregularities, revealed information under the RTI Act.

Apart from the infamous PU pension scam by Pooja Bagga, the two significant financial anomalies that stood out were the irregular transfer of Rs 23.37 lakh from the university's General Provident Fund to Pension Corpus Fund and excess pension of Rs 26.46 lakh deposited in the accounts of deceased employees. Though a major chunk of excess pension was recovered by the Pension Cell, an amount of Rs 7.25 is yet to be recovered.

The audit report observed that the university's share of Provident Fund, in respect of employees, amounting to Rs 82.23 lakh was transferred on April 2, 2014. As per the list, Rs 58.86 lakh was lying in the accounts of university employees. Thus, an amount of Rs 23.37 lakh was transferred from General Provident Fund (GPF). As per the rules of Accounts Manual, no transfer is allowed to be made from GPF, Provident Fund and Pension Corpus Fund (PCF) to any other account. The manual, however, permits rectification of errors of money deposit(s)/debit.

The irregularity of transfer of Rs 23.37 lakh is a contravention of the manual and should be brought to the notice of a competent authority, the report recommended. "It could also not be ascertained whether the recovery of Rs 23.37 lakh from GPF accounts of the employees have been made till the date of its credit to the PCF," the report read.

Assuring strict action, PU Registrar Karamjeet Singh said, "We will take appropriate action only after getting the report as the varsity is cash-strapped and we can't afford to waste even a rupee," he said.

Recovery of excess payments

During the course of Pension Fund's post edit, it was observed that an amount of Rs 26.46 lakh was disbursed to various pensioners/family pensioners even after their death. The matter was repeatedly brought to the notice of the authorities concerned, following which a sum of Rs 19.03 lakh was recovered by the Pension Cell as informed on October 6, 2017. Therefore, Rs 7.25 lakh is yet to be recovered.