FAISALABAD: More than two dozen University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) deans, directors and chairmen of various departments, besides the vice-chancellor, have been using official vehicles for years while receiving the conveyance allowance illegally in connivance with the administration, causing loss to the national kitty.

Now the administration has to withdraw the facility after the Punjab government came to know about this illegality and directed the administration to avoid ‘corruption’.

A notification (copy with Dawn) has also been issued by the Audit Cell/Coordination section following the direction of the provincial finance department.

VC, 31 others found using cars, taking conveyance allowance illegally

As many as 32 officials have been stripped of the conveyance allowance. They are: vice chancellor, registrar, treasurer, deans of faculties of veterinary sciences, agri engineering and technology, animal husbandry, agriculture, sciences and social

sciences, principals of Community College PARS, UAF sub-campuses of Toba Tek Singh and Burewala, director general of the National Institute of Food Science and Technology, director of the CABB, Soil & Environmental Sciences, Agri Extension and Rural Development, Institute of Horticultural Sciences, OR1C, Water Management Research Centre and Farms, land utilisation officer, superintendent Postgraduate Agricultural Research Station (PARS), directors of Students Affairs and Centre for Advance Studies of Applied Genetics of Saline Agriculture (CAGSA), principal officer PRP, hall warden, principal officer Estate Care Department, executive director Endowment Fund, project director UAF Sub-Campus Toba Tek Singh, deputy director Endowment Fund, estate officer and director P&D.

The allowance was stopped from the month of March and all the officials would have to return the allowance they had received.

The notification reads, “The vice chancellor has further been pleased to approve that recovery of conveyance allowance, already drawn, will be made in eight installments starting from Dec 2014.”

This correspondent sent queries to VC Dr Iqrar Ahmed, through an SMS, asking how many officials were entitled for vehicles under the government policy and what amount vehicle users would have to return.

Instead of responding to the queries, the VC said, “This is a contentious case and we are contestants. The vehicles belong to the motor pool and officers use them for official duties. There is no private use intended.” He said he never received any allowance.

In the past, the Punjab government had also found UAF Vice Chancellor Dr Iqrar Ahmed drawing salary more than his entitlement.

In his first stint, Dr Ahmad was made part of the university (as VC) on Feb 27, 2008, through a notification which clearly mentioned that he had been recruited in MP-II grade.

The terms and conditions said his pay would be Rs105,950 per month, accommodation Rs63, 570 per month and utilities Rs5,298 per month. However, Dr Ahmad had done otherwise and received a salary of MP-I grade -- Rs195,000 per month and Rs9,750 utility allowance.

Dr Jalal Arif, the university spokesperson, had then quoted the vice chancellor as saying that he (Dr Ahmad) had, immediately after the issuance of his job’s notification, approached the provincial government for correction.

An associate professor, requesting anonymity, told Dawn that instead of asking people to return the money, the government should initiate a probe into the issue that why the administration did not take any action against the officials who had been using the vehicles and also kept withdrawing the conveyance allowance. He said it was not on the record that the deans, directors and other officials had been using the vehicles.

“If officials have been using the vehicles for field or official duty then why their conveyance allowance has been stopped. Why they have been asked to return the withdrawn allowance?” he asked.

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2014