Skeletons waiting to tumble out of Gujarat University closet?

At a time when a First Information Report (FIR) has been registered against Gujarat University (GU) authorities for their reported involvement in corruption, the corridor of state’s largest varsity is sitting on a dormant volcano. The reason why it has not erupted yet is because the varsity’s accounts have not been audited by the external agency for at least four years.

Senior officials at the GU, who do not wish to be quoted, state that the authorities at the GU are so lax as far as the auditing is concerned, that the audit by the government agency for the year 2005-06 and 2006-07 was carried out after five years of submission, i.e. in 2011. Similarly, the year 2007-08 audit is currently being conducted.

So apparently, the audit of accounting reports for four years - 2008 to 2011 is yet to be initiated. The members of Congress in the executive board speculate that if the accounts are probed with a keen eye by a third party, there are chances of many other corruption cases getting revealed.

Manish Doshi, member of executive council at the GU, confirms the report. “The internal audits are done by the varsity officials themselves. So it does not take an Einstein to understand the reason why no cases of corruption and malpractice have been reported. If the university authorities claim they have not done anything wrong, why are they afraid of an external audit?” he asked.

DNA tried calling Kaushik Jain, member of Board of Accounts, and registrar MN Shah to verify the allegations made against them. However, none responded. Narhari Amin, senior member of executive council said he was unaware that an external audit has not been conducted for four years. “If this is the case, it is shameful. GU authorities must audit their accounts to come out clean. I will take up the matter with the vice-chancellor,” he stated.