The central expenditure team of audit has identified a fraud worth over 57 lakh rupees by over 100 Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) officials in the form of claiming leave travel concessions and reimbursement of phone bills during the fiscal year 2017-18.
After the communication from the office of Director General of Audit (Central Expenditure), asking its remarks over the incident on the basis of either fake travel bill or unauthorised reimbursements, the varsity has started an investigation into it.
One of the senior officials, while seeking anonymity, said that the matter was put forth before the Executive Council (EC) meeting, reports, The Hindu.
The official further added that; “The EC is apprised of the matter and is looking into it. As per the EC decision, the defaulters will be asked to pay.”
However, the JNU official remained mum over the DGACE’s recommendation to file a criminal case against the varsity employees, involved in the concerning fraud.
The matter gained light after the RTI application being filed by Kota-based activist Sujeet Swami seeking details of complete audit and inspection reports of JNU and Jamia Millia Islamia for 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20.
While responding to the plea under the Right to Information Act, DGACE conveyed Swami the audit reports for the two central universities for the year 2017-18 but asserted that audits for 2018-19 and 2019-20 are yet to be conducted.
The 2017-18 audit report for JNU conveyed that, the DGCAE found 34 JNU officials had availed their LTCs on the basis of counterfeit bills while 70 employees had claimed phone reimbursements worth ₹5.05 lakh, despite not being entitled to them.
The DGCAE also asserted that the act of booking tickets through a private agency was also in breach of the official’s service as well as the conduct rules.
With asking JNU to recover the unauthorised reimbursement amount from their 70 officials, the DGACE asked the university to suspend their 34 employees and lodge a criminal case against them as well, for availing LTCs on the basis of counterfeit air travel bills.
