CAG finds IITs guilty of wasteful expenses

Two IITs, two NITs and a newly started IIM have violated financial norms leading to wasteful expenses and loss to exchequer, the CAG has said.

In its latest report tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, the Comptroller and Auditor General has said the IIT-Guwahati caused losses up to Rs 6 crore  in constructing hostels for its students, while other higher institutions squandered funds of about Rs 10 crore.

In December 2007, IIT-Guwahati entrusted a contractor to build boys’ hostel for Rs 26.09 crore. “A defective piling work by the contractor led to tilting of hostel blocks, causing damage to 144 rooms and two toilet blocks,” the CAG said.

Though the experts  established the failure of the contractors, IIT-Guwahati did not recover the Rs 5.97 crore spent on building the defective rooms and toilet blocks, the government auditor said.

The institute took over the building along with the tilted blocks and paid Rs 25.68 crore to the contractor.

Jaipur’s Malviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT) awarded a construction work to a non-government agency in violation of general financial rules and central vigilance commission (CVC) guidelines, resulting in an “avoidable expenditure” of Rs 138.13 lakh.

Non-formulation of investment policy and parking of surplus fund in banks by the NIT, Jamshedpur and the IIM, Ranchi, resulted in a loss of interest of Rs 4.36 crore, the CAG added. The CAG observed that the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Allahabad, made a fruitless expenditure of Rs 1.41 crore to set up a science and technology discovery park for rural empowerment at its Amethi campus in Uttar Pradesh.