IIT-Bhubaneswar

New Delhi, Sept. 22: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bhubaneswar has run into trouble with allegations of financial irregularities and anomalies in appointment of staff coming to the fore.

While certain purchases made by the institute have come under CBI scanner, documents obtained under Right to Information (RTI) Act have revealed that the appointment of candidates in three non-faculty positions were unlawful because they were created without government approval.

While Usha Srikanth was the only candidate for the post of career development counsellor, the posts of officer on special duty (OSD), academic affairs and special officer — occupied by N.R. Maiti and U.P. Singh, respectively — were never advertised.

Further, the eligibility criteria for career development counsellor said the candidate should be an Indian national and within the age of 45. However, Srikanth was found to be an American citizen, who had attained 50 years since her date of birth is September 5, 1961.

A selection panel that included IIT-Bhubaneswar deputy director Ganapati Panda, technical advisor S.C. De Sarkar, former IIT-Kharagpur dean R. Bhaskaran and IIT Kharagpur dean B.K. Mathur had interviewed Srikanth. She was appointed last November for a period of six months with a monthly salary of Rs 45,000. The advertisement had no mention of the expected salary. Later, her service period was extended to a year.

Sources said the institute created the post without government’s permission, despite the fact that the same work had been given to a regular faculty member C.N. Bhende, who was handling it as an additional responsibility. The institute also appointed R. Bhaskaran as honorary advisor of career development cell with a salary of around Rs 15,000 per month. Maiti was appointed as the OSD (academic affairs) even though he had attained 62 years of age after his retirement as deputy registrar in IIT-Kharagpur. Similarly, U.P. Singh was appointed as special officer without any advertisement. He was over 62 years. On the other hand, the alleged financial mismanagement came to light when the CBI conducted a joint surprise check at the IIT-Bhubaneswar on November 10, 2010, on information that the institute had purchased equipment worth Rs 2.5 crore from a single source, bypassing the tender-based bidding process.

Director of IIT-Bhubaneswar Madhusudan Chakraborty did not respond despite repeated calls on his mobile phone.

The investigating body has submitted a report on its surprise check to the HRD Ministry in June last year. All the equipment was purchased from a single agent M/S AIMIL without following tender process, the CBI said in its report. According to the general financial rules of the government of India, an institute will have to advertise open tender in a newspaper for procuring items priced beyond Rs 25 lakh.

If it is a proprietary article, the item manufactured by a particular farm, the institute can purchase it from a single source without following tender procedure. If not, the institute will have to get a certificate from the principal company that the equipment is a proprietary item.

After scrutiny of the documents, the CBI found that no open or limited tender was invited for purchase of the items. In its defence, the institute described all these items as proprietary in nature for which tendering was not required.

However, the CBI did not find proprietary article certificates for those equipment. There was no approval of the director for sending the tender enquiry to the supplier.