The Lucknow University registrar has issued a letter for a third party audit of completed or barely started construction and repair work, apparently to facilitate payments to contractors before the end of the current Vice Chancellor's term.
As per Central Public Works Department (CPWD) norms, both internal and external audits are mandatory for “detecting whether the procedures adopted ensuring the quality of works are at variance with those required by the contract…”
Construction and repair work at a total cost of Rs 91.71 crores is going on in the university. Of this, the work on one of the buildings—AP Sen Hall—barely started a month ago. Some of the work started during the term of the previous Vice Chancellor S.P. Singh.
THE WEEK has gained exclusive access to a letter, issued on October 12, 2022 by the registrar, Sanjay Medhavi, announcing a five-member ‘third party’ committee to audit construction/repair work at a total of eight sites. The composition of the committee was decided by Vice Chancellor Alok Kumar Rai. It consists of four members who are internal to the university and thus subordinate to Rai. The fifth member is an executive engineer of the Public Works department.
As per norms issued by the CPWD in its Quality Assurance Manual for Building Works, 2022, inspection shall be carried out during execution for both material and workmanship aspects.
But the staff in the works department of Lucknow University say that while the buildings where the work has been completed were not inspected even once when the construction was going on, the AP Sen hall is being inspected just a few weeks after its work began.
The ‘third party’ committee constituted for inspection is also in violation of norms. Public Works Departments rules state that for the constitution a third party quality audit team, the department/institution concerned is to invite bids from consulting firms, government engineering colleges/organisations to assist in the audit. The team thus formed shall include qualified and experienced technical and other experts.
“It is obvious that that the audit is taking place now, with the VC's chosen team, to ensure payment of contractors before the end of his term in December,” said a senior faculty member.
Vice Chancellors of various Uttar Pradesh universities have recently been in focus for unsavory reasons, with most controversial of them being the case of Kanpur University VC Vinay Pathak, against whom a special investigation team is looking into complaints of extortion and intimidation.
Pathak’s defence team is arguing that as per Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, there needs to be a prior sanction before an FIR is filed against a public servant. Since such a sanction was not obtained by the allegedly aggrieved party, the complaint is liable to be quashed.