Maintain single bank account: Karnataka govt to Universities

Bengaluru: Following numerous charges of corruption against universities, the State Government has come out with a series of directions to ensure transparency. All universities have been directed to disclose their bank account and deposit details in public domain.

According to the officials in the state higher education department, there were complaints that every university in the state was maintaining several bank accounts for different purposes in different bank branches.

“There are complaints that Universities are using multiple bank accounts for fee collection, examination and affiliation fee, disbursement of salary, credit various grants from various agencies, construction and other works. This was leading to errors in the annual auditing,” an official said.

So the government has decided that the universities should have single account in a single bank branch. We also want them to furnish all the details about their existing bank accounts at the earliest.  If we found anything suspicious we will hold an investigation, he added.

Why this direction?
According to the higher education department officials, recently state government un-earthed a massive scam in the department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, where officials had parked hundreds of crores in unauthorised bank accounts. “Universities also receive funding from various state and central government agencies. To prevent these type of scams, this circular has been issued,” an officer said.

Vigilance cell
The state government has directed all state universities to set up university level vigilance cell to ensure that there will be an internal ombudsman to depose complaints related to the corruption. “University registrars are designated as the vigilance officer. If aggrieved people were not satisfied by this, they can approach the government,” he added.