LARKANA: The teachers’ association of the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University (SMBBMU) has expressed its concern over persisting financial crunch being faced by the institution and called for a forensic audit of its five-year accounts.

Talking to Dawn, Dr Abdul Hafeez Abro, president of the association, said that a communication in this regard had been sent to the Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and copies forwarded to the Higher Education Commission, secretary Univer­sities and Boards and SMBBMU vice chancellor.

Dr Abro said the university had been finding it difficult to disburse salaries regularly and on time whereas promotion of many faculty members had become overdue. He said the administration was not in a position to address certain issues repeatedly brought to its knowledge and it seemed that unavailability of adequate funds was the main impediment.

He said that the university had been receiving hefty grants and huge amounts of money under the self-financing scheme, in Pak rupee and US dollar, over the last five years. “Where does this money go?” he wondered, and called for a forensic audit of the university’s accounts and a transparent assessment of the performance of its finance department.

Dr Abro pointed out that the increase in salaries announced in last year’s budget had not been given as yet and the next budget was about to be announced in a few days.

The association had time and again been keeping abreast the vice chancellor about the poor performance of finance department and wondering why the university had been heading for a financial crisis. Both academic and development activities were getting affected by the situation.

The general secretary of the association had written to the vice chancellor on June 1 about various issues and urged him to take steps for the resolution of teachers’ genuine issues, which had been pending consideration for long,

Dr Abro said. He said these issues were supposed to be resolved on a priority basis.

A set of demands submitted to the VC also included a forensic audit of the university’s five-year accounts, he said, adding that copies of the general secretary’s letter were provided to the accountant general of Sindh, registrar of the SMBBMU and Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (Fapuasa).

Due to the inaction on the part of university’s administration and vice chancellor, not only teachers but all other employees also were suffering, said Dr Abro.

SMBBMU teachers were facing financial hardship and were worried over their careers as they were not getting the benefits being given to their counterparts serving in its sister universities from time to time, he said.

About teachers’ other demands, he said one of them called for honorarium for teachers of the Benazir College of Nursing, Institute of Physiotherapy and English Lang­uage Centre. Another dem­and was running a shuttle service between the main campus in Arija and Larkana as

the campus is located 23 kilometres away from the city. Teachers should also be provided hostel facility, he said. Comme­nting on the association’s grievances, SMBBMU Registrar Prof Dr Abdul Rauf Khaskheli said funds to disburse all employees’ salaries were available with the finance department. He said even arrears would also be disbursed by June 15.

Prof Khaskheli said advance salaries on account of Eidul Azha would also hopefully be disbursed by June 21.

He told Dawn that Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Nusrat Shah was putting in her best efforts to address the other issues. “The university is receiving positive response from the departments concerned and is optimistic that the rest of the issues will also be resolved,” he said, and advised the faculty to exercise restraint as things would definitely improve and their grievances addressed.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2023