Following Minister of Education Prof. G.L. Peiris’s directives to investigate whether financial irregularities have taken place in postgraduate institutions in the country, the University Grants Commission (UGC) is to scrutinise the financial procedures of all postgraduate institutes and revisit the laws including ordinances governing postgraduates institutions.
The Minister has instructed UGC Chair Prof. Sampath Amaratunge to look into the financial matters of postgraduate institutions to ascertain whether irregularities have taken place, following a revelation that was made at the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) of a Rs. 50 million financial fraud that has taken place at the Postgraduate Institute of Science (PGIS) affiliated to the University of Peradeniya (UoP).
Speaking to The Morning yesterday (1), Prof. Amaratunge said the UGC is taking drastic action to rectify such irregularities and reinstate accountability in the system by way of scrutinising the financial procedures of postgraduate institutions and revisiting the relevant ordinances through which they were established.
“I hear that the PGIS in question did not have a finance committee, which is a body that is compulsory. The UGC will look into all postgraduate institutions and whether they have finance committees and how their financial activities are carried out. We will also be revisiting the postgraduate institutions ordinances,” he said.
The university system currently has nine postgraduate institutions and they have been distanced from their universities to expedite their decision-making, Prof. Amaratunge said, adding: “These institutions become retarded when they can’t make quick decisions.”
Also speaking to The Morning yesterday, Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) President Prof. Shyama Banneheka said the FUTA would discuss it when the UGC’s plans to scrutinise the financial proceedings of postgraduate institutions and to revisit postgraduate ordinances reached them.
“The UGC’s plans have not reached us yet. We would have to talk about it when the plans reach the FUTA,” Prof. Banneheka said.
However, commenting on the issue in a personal capacity, Prof. Banneheka said that universities have little control over the actions of postgraduate institutions.
This week, the COPE uncovered that Rs. 50 million had been fraudulently withdrawn personally by the Senior Assistant Bursar of the PGIS of the UoP out of a sum of Rs. 93 million that was in 14 fixed deposits at the Peradeniya branch of People’s Bank between 2009 and 2016. Out of the total sum, only Rs. 37 million had been invested in new fixed deposits.
COPE revelation of Peradeniya PGIS fraud: Uni postgrad institutes under UGC microscope
02 Apr 2021
COPE revelation of Peradeniya PGIS fraud: Uni postgrad institutes under UGC microscope
02 Apr 2021