KARACHI: As the administrative crisis at University of Karachi widens, financial mismanagement has also reached its peak at the in largest university of the province. Teachers, employees, and even a delegation of student People’s Students Federation reached the office of Secretary Board and Universities Murad Ali Rahimoon with complaints against the university’s Director Finance Dr Tariq Kaleem.
The University of Karachi has been running without a permanent Vice Chancellor since May 2019 and a permanent Registrar since 2007. The budget for 2021- 2022 has not been approved yet due to the incompetence of Tariq Kaleem, Grade 20 officer, who serves as Director Finance of Karachi University.
Despite objection by the audit, the procurement committee comprising of member from within the university, have handed over contracts without tenders to their favourite companies. The chair is being repaired for Rs. 4,200 each, computers worth more than Rs. 4 million and air conditioners worth Rs. 2.4 million have been purchased without getting a quotation. The director has also secured Rs100 million provident funds of teachers’ salary and protected his income in violation of rules.
According to the documents available with this correspondent, the budget of Karachi University 2021-2022, after the recommendation of the Finance and Planning Committee, was approved by the syndicate, due to which university has been spending without budget approval since July 2021.
Director Finance Tariq Kaleem did not convene a meeting of the finance and planning committee in 2021 nor discuss the budget for approval in the syndicate. A budget of more than Rs. 6.5 billion has been prepared and no arrangement has been made for its approval.
Quotations without tenders
In October 2020, the university had received the relevant pro-forma from the Higher Education Commission on which the Finance and Planning Committee was to meet in December and January to prepare the budget.
In contravention of transparency, all items are now being procured and commissioned from preferred contractors without quotations instead of a transparent procedure. A procurement committee was set up for tenders and quotations as per the university code but all members are from the same university in violation of rules.
Under rules, one third (two members) of the committee had to be from outside the university. The members of the committee include Purchase Officer Arshad (Chairman Committee), Chief Accountant Qamar Iqbal and Auditor Imran Khan and includes Mabrur Khan from Center of Excellence of Marine Biology and Abid Ahmed Khan from Pakistan Study Center. The latter two belong to the same university but have been placed on the quota of outside members.
Under this committee, millions of rupees have been spent by the Director Finance by approving quotation without tender during the last few years. The Accountant General of Pakistan has also objected to this committee and has not received a satisfactory reply.
Director Finance Tariq Kaleem had given misleading information to the Vice Chancellor and withdrew Rs 180 million from Bank Alfalah to United Bank through forgery.
A summary also signed by the Vice Chancellor on July 15, 2021, stated that the Sindh government had issued a letter on July 6 to issue salaries to all the employees before August 1, and wanted to deposit the salary and pension amount of Karachi University in the account.
The summary stated that misleading information to the Vice Chancellor to allow transferring the amount to issue salary and pension. The director did not mention the provident fund and the amount was transferred for the payments. In addition, the Director Finance shows the salaries as a total in the audit while the salaries are shown in the break-up to hide how much salary is paid to each individual each month.
It is to be noted that with the issuance of tenders, bids are made by various companies while the contracts are awarded to favoured persons, in which works worth millions were completed for just Rs300,000. The notice has been posted on the board and has not been uploaded on the website. The committee does not allow any new contractor to come to the university. What was ordered from which company and how much was paid remains unknown.
Who is Tariq Kaleem?
Tariq Kaleem was principal at the Defense Housing Authority’s Defence Authority College of Business (DACB) in 2012. He was appointed director of finance at Dow Medical University where he resigned in 2014 without completing his term.
He was posted in Karachi University in 2015, after which there was a protest of teachers for levying encashment in Karachi University. He was sent on forced leave on 28 February 2017.
Tariq Kaleem got a job at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) on which he was fired by Karachi University after which he approached the court which upheld the decision. He was given notice by the University of Karachi to return his car, petrol book but he did not return them.
Meanwhile, after applying through an advertisement issued by the Board and Universities Department, Tariq Kaleem was appointed as Director Finance Grade 20 at Karachi University on October 10, 2019 on a contractual basis for three years.
He took two medical advances of Rs. 400,000 against the rules of the university itself. When Tariq Kaleem left Karachi University on February 28, 2017, his basic salary was Rs.109,910, including personal pay scale of Rs7,500.
It must be mentioned that minimum service for personal pay scale is 14 years but rather Tariq Kaleem was provided the perks before completion of three years. On May 3, 202, the Registrar issued a notice which protect Tariq Kaleem’s pay scale.
Tariq Kaleem has also appointed himself a Professor in the Visiting Faculty in the Department Business School where he is receiving Grade 21 salary despite being in Grade 20. The payment of teachers are pending but Kaleem’s payment are made promptly.
We tried to contact Dr. Tariq Kaleem several times to get his position and also sent him questions, but he did not receive the call nor did he answer our questions. His response will added when received.
