Dereliction of duty and non-compliance with rules is common among Tribhuvan University officials and staff in recent years. Confirming this allegation, the 50th TU Assembly on Tuesday endorsed the budget after more than 80 percent of it was spent without approval.

The budget for 2011/12, which had to be approved in July last year, was endorsed unanimously after 10 months. Spending the budget without approval is common in the country’s oldest university which has over Rs 7 billion in arrears. The TU Division of Finance records that it has spent some Rs 4 billon of the total Rs 5,461,856,000 allocated for the current fiscal without the assembly’s consent. According to Registrar Chandra Mani Poudel, recurrent and development funds had to be released in advance in the university’s inability to call the assembly on time. “Budget allocation was necessary for running the university and there was no option to releasing it in advance,” he said at the budget session. The university managed Rs 791,492,000 from its internal resources. It generates only nine percent of the total budget and depends on government grants for meeting the remaining costs. Presenting the budget for approval, Poudel said the university was facing problems in providing salary, allowances and provident fund to staff and professors as it had not received adequate funds from the government. “TU needs Rs 2.77 billion for the purpose but the government has allocated only Rs 2.53 billion, leading to a deficit of Rs 241 million.” Poudel added that TU officials had not got uniform allowance as the government had not released Rs 191 million necessary for the purpose.

Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, who is also the ex-officio chancellor of the varsity, complained that university officials had not played their expected roles in order to uplift the academic standard of the university. Addressing the inaugural session of the assembly, he said that the TU should undergo transformation in order to produce competent human resource, honouring its 53-year history. “My office has received numerous complaints about TU and its officials. Therefore, I ask you [officials] to improve the situation.”

source: The Kathmandu Post,16 May 2012