New Delhi: The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D), in an audit report by the office of the Director General of Audit, Central Reserves, has been accused of "deficient procurement planning" that cost it Rs.434.5 lakh due to "idling of equipment."
The equipment in question, Quanta 3D FEG (Dual Beam FIB+FE SEM) and accessories for a Micro Manufacturing Laboratory, were received from The Netherlands on January 16 this year.
According to the audit report, although the orders were placed in August last year, the lab was not ready by that time.
The equipment remained uninstalled and the auditors even claimed that Dimethyle (acetylacetonate) gold (iii), which was lying in the corridors was supposed to be stored in the fridge as advised by the vendor due to want of pre-installation of work at site.
The institute placed its order long after in March 2009 for the required equipment to construct the laboratory, pointed out the report.
"As of June 2009, for more than half year, equipment worth Rs.434.50 lakh remained idle due to deficient planning. Purchase of equipment without ensuring off-site and pre-installation work indicated lack of coordination of efforts," said the report.
Upon being asked about the auditor’s report to the IIT-D Director, Surendra Prasad, he replied with an oblivion state of affairs in the campus.
"I am unaware of such incident and would not like to comment on it. Such things do happen sometimes although their rate of occurrence is rare. The fault is usually of the concerned scientist but it is the administration which ultimately has to suffer with the blame."
IIT-Delhi Deputy Director (Administration) S.M. Ishtiaque said, "Such objections are very common in the audit reports and the institute makes it a point to reply to such queries. We have replied to the objections of this report also (and) auditors usually drop such paragraphs after they find our reply satisfactory."
In his reply, Ishtiaque said that in this case, construction of a very sensitive laboratory was to take place and the contractor could not meet the deadline leading to extension of the time taken by the project.
But all replies by IIT-Delhi were found "not reasonable" by the audit team and the paragraphs were not dropped.
The audit report says unplanned procurement cost IIT-Delhi Rs.656 lakh in 2006-07 and Rs.30.87 lakh in 2007-08. Besides, "idling of funds" due to "non-installation of equipment" cost Rs.301 lakh in 2007-08.
The report also pointed out the following:
"Inadmissible payment" of Rs.82.24 lakh as advance increment to employees, against a Finance ministry directive
"Irregular payment" of honorarium of Rs.28.41 lakh to Central Administrative Staff, without approval of Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry
"Irregular expenditure" on cellular phones by non-entitled officers cost IIT-Delhi Rs.12.83 lakh.
A senior Supreme Court advocate paid Rs.8,47,000 for seven cases he handles; when payment should have been Rs.21,000 as per Law Ministry.
Rs.66.81 lakh lost from April 1999 to March 2009 because IIT-Delhi charged banks and post offices in its premises much less than rates prescribed by Directorate of Estates.
IIT-Delhi Deputy Director (Admin) S.M. Ishtiaque: "320 acres we have (in campus) is not part of the general land pool of the Directorate of Estates, therefore we have the liberty to charge them as per our rates."