Amid the Liquor scam and Schoolgate, another battle between the Delhi government and Lieutenant Governor over delay in tabling Universities audit reports sparked up.

L-G VK Saxena has sought an explanation from the Vice-chancellor of Delhi Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research University (DPSRU) for delaying the CAG audit for 5 years. He has also demanded the details of officers responsible for the lapses within a span of 15 days.

According to a Republic report, Delhi L-G has flagged the gross violation of accounting procedures, financial mismanagement, and inordinate delay in auditing in the Public Education Sector, this time under the Higher and Technical Education Department of the Government of Delhi headed by Manish Sisodia.

Recently disposing of a file, in his capacity as the Chancellor, for the audit of accounts of DPSRU for five years between 2016 to 2021 by the CAG, the L-G has expressed serious concern over the undue delay in the conduct of the audit. He has directed the Vice Chancellor to submit an explanation for the lapse within 15 days, the report added.

As per the Delhi L-G report, a proposal to get the accounts of DPSRU pertaining to 2015-16 audited by the CAG was cleared by then L-G in May 2019. It may be noted that DPSRU moved the proposal under the provisions of Section 27 of the University Act and Section 20 of the CAG (Duties, Powers and Conditions of Service), Act 1971, instead of the relevant and applicable Section 19(3) of the CAG Act.

This essentially delayed the audit. The CAG had also asked that the entrustment of audit of accounts of 04 other Universities which are-- Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIIT-Delhi), Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women (IGDTUW), Delhi Technological University (DTU), and Netaji Subhash University of Technology (NSUT) be also conveyed under Section 19(3)".

The L-G further stated that it took the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government more than one year to comply with the advice of the CAG and finally a proposal to this effect under Section 19(3) was made in August 2022. The file for the same yet again came to the L-G's Secretariat from the CM without his signature as he didn't want to take the responsibility for the lapses in accounting and violation of the rules of CAG.

The Delhi L-G further directed the Training & Technical Education/Higher Education Department to take immediate action in order to ensure the entrustment of audit of accounts of all State Universities in accordance with the statutes in place to the CAG, without any delay. He also wrote to all Vice Chancellors to ensure that meetings of the Court of University are held at least twice a year.

Image courtesy: PTI