The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) wing has booked former Vice-Chancellor and Registrar of Annamalai University for financial mismanagement that caused a huge loss to the university as well the State government for the benefit of a few individuals.
Based on inputs from reliable sources, DVAC sleuths conducted a detailed inquiry before booking M Ramanathan, who was Vice-Chanceller from 2008 to 2013 and M Rathinasabapathy, who was the Registrar of the university for a period of 13 years from 1999 to 2012 under sections 409 of the IPC (Criminal breach of trust by public servant) and 13(2) read with 13 (1)(3) and (d) (Criminal misconduct by a public servant to allow private individuals to gain undue pecuniary advantages) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The DVAC sources said the duo diverted university’s general funds, which is granted by the State government and credited directly into 34 separate bank accounts to disburse salary and other allowances to the staff members, to the bank accounts of self-financing courses and vice-versa in the period between 2008-09 and 2012-13. In total, Rs 11.25 crore has been mishandled this way by flouting the rules in place, causing a huge loss to the university.
Similarly, the renowned institution, located in Chidambaram, ran into a deep financial crisis due to the excessive appointments of teaching and non-teaching staff without adhering to the norms of the University Grants Commission though the student enrolment had continuously been downward over the years. Though not a single student enrolled in the university’s distance education study centres in the academic year 2009-10, 206 staff members were appointed. Also, the strength of the non-teaching staff grew exponentially from 1,110 in the year 1999 to 9,135 in 2012.
Not just that, the selection grade and promotions were decided without fixing the scale of pay and as the scales were revised once in seven years, it resulted in huge loss to the 89-year-old institution.
Similar irregularities have been unearthed in Contributory Pension Scheme and the pension contribution system and diverted the funds meant for employees as provident funds and pensions to pay salary and other university expenses.
The FIR has been presented before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Cuddalore, and direction for further action is awaited.