Auditor finds Tk 75m financial irregularity at Dhaka University

Dhaka University has paid income tax of teachers and employees from its own funds in breach of rules.

The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General has made an audit objection over the Tk 17 million financial irregularity of 2013-14 fiscal year.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts reviewed six more issues of financial irregularities at the university in a meeting on Thursday.

The seven incidents of financial irregularities total over Tk 74.8 million.

 In 2013-14, the institution paid the income tax although there is no such option in the law.

Md Abdus Shahid, member secretary of the committee, said it gave the university a specific time to recover the money and ordered to form committees to settle some of the audit objection issues.

The university will have to deduct the paid amount from the salaries of the teachers and employees to make up the loss within three months, according to the minutes of the meeting.

The university suffered a loss of over Tk 12.7 million because the amount it deducted as house rent from the salaries of the teachers and employees living in quarters was less than the government-fixed rates.

The university has been asked to form a committee with a representative of the vice chancellor, joint secretary of public works, additional secretary of education, joint secretary of finance, and a director of the OCAG to make recommendations on the issue.

The university paid the teachers and employees over Tk 15.4 million in fatigue allowances in 2013-14 financial year, although the government dropped the allowance for autonomous organisations in 2010.

The parliamentary committee asked the university to recover the money from those who took it.

Besides these, the other financial irregularities found in the audit are related to VAT on rents and bills, research allowances, payment to teachers who did not return after study leave, tax at source on bills of contractors.

Vice-Chancellor Md Akhtaruzzaman was also present at the meeting.