First Time ever: KP Govt set to start performance audit of KP Universities
PESHAWAR: The Higher Education Department, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is set to commence performance audit of eight public sector universities through an international audit firm, according to sources.
They said that the performance audit would be conducted in those universities which had collectively received around Rs10 billion in the previous few years from the provincial government as grant.
The provincial government has released grants from time to time to the universities, mostly to the newly established, including Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, University of Swabi, Bacha Khan University Charsadda, University of Swat, University of Peshawar, Khushhal Khan Khattak University Karak, Hazara University Mansehra and Haripur University.
They said that through performance audit the HED wanted to know whether the universities had academically improved or not after the utilisation of provincial government’s fund. The audit firm would also investigate utilisation of the fund.
The sources said that the education department had already sent a summary for the release of Rs10 million to be paid to the audit firm being hired by it. They said that the finance department had verbally agreed with HED to financially and technically support it in hiring audit firm for performance evaluation and audit of the provincial grant. They said that there would be no hindrance in the release of fund for the audit.
HED has selected a foreign firm for the purpose
The sources said that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan had recently expressed his concern over poor performance of the public sector universities during a presentation to him. They said that Mr Khan was not happy with the performance of the vice-chancellors.
“Imran Khan has asked the HED to accelerate the process of launching the audit in universities,” the sources said, adding that the audit report would be shared with Mr Khan.
The sources said that the firm would look into the improvement in human resource development, if any, research publications of the faculties and their efficiencies. It would also consider the number of students graduating per year from these universities, they said. It is for the first time that the provincial government is conducting the performance audit of the universities. “We want to know how the public money has been utilised by the vice-chancellors and its impact on the students,” the sources said.
They said that HED had selected Deloitte, one of the international audit firms, for conducting the audit. They said that following advertisement in newspapers about eight audit firms applied of which Deloitte was selected.
The sources said that in academic evaluation process the competency of the graduating students would also be judged to see whether the qualified graduates were employable or they had just achieved their degrees. They said that once evaluation of the universities was completed it would help the government to know about the output of the universities on which it had been spending billions of rupees.
An official said that with the devolution of the education to the provinces in the light of the 18th constitutional amendment, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has increased awarding financial grants to the public sector universities.
Source : Published in Dawn January 31st, 2015
Uniform statutes for KP varsities being prepared
PESHAWAR: The Higher Education Department (HED), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has decided to formulate uniform model statutes for the public sector universities in the province by incorporating best practices of the leading national and international universities.
The model statutes would help bring uniformity in the rules and regulations of all the public sector universities across the province, according to sources.
Asked about the best practices, the sources said that the model statutes would chiefly contain rules on how to effectively run the universities academically, administratively and financially. They said that the statutes would also lay down a uniform procedure for the promotion of employees, efficiency and disciplinary action.
Currently, each university in the province has its own statues made for running the affairs of the university under the law. The need for the model statutes was felt after the promulgation of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities Act, 2012 being implemented in all the universities, said the official sources. Prior to this law, every university had its own law passed by the provincial assembly.
They said that the HED had already formed a committee to frame model statutes and it had so far held four meetings in this regard. Additional secretary HED Dr Khalid Khan is convener of the committee while its members include deputy director distant education, University of Peshawar, Noorzada, UoP treasurer Uraid Ihsan, Li-Sael-Wal-Mehroom social welfare organisation director Akbar Ali, HED section officer Asad Jan and legal drafter law department Shagufta Naveed.
The official sources said that the model statutes would be prepared in the light of the statutes of the leading national and international universities.
They said that the committee had already summoned the statutes of the prominent universities to study and take idea from them for preparing a comprehensive document of new statutes.
Rules and regulations to include best practices of leading national, international universities
The sources said that after their preparation each university would adopt the model statutes with the approval of a proper forum.
They said that existing confusion for the HED among the statutes of the universities would also end with the introduction of the model statutes.
They said that the uniform rules and regulation would set the same criteria for the appointments in different categories in the universities, which currently had a different set of rules for various appointments.
The formation of same statutes for all government universities was part of the reform agenda of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led provincial government, one of the committee member told Dawn. He advised the HED high-ups to avoid work in haste during formation of this important document, adding that it should be made after meticulous study of the rules of leading universities.
Requesting anonymity, the committee member said that the model statutes would be more beneficial for the universities to be established in future because the administration of such universities would have ready-made statutes to adopt for running the affairs from the day one.
The sources said that most of the universities established during the previous government had yet to prepare their own statutes. They said that the administration of such universities had adopted statutes of other well-known universities.
Under-utilization of Funds – Incompetence evident again
The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government has spent Rs17.86 billion out of the Rs140.23 billion allocation under the umbrella of Annual Development Programme (ADP) 2014-15.
According to data provided by the Centre for Governance and Public Accountability (CGPA), the first half of the current fiscal year has been rather sluggish for the K-P government. As of January 2, 2015, the provincial government has released a total of only Rs64 billion under the ADP.
source: http://tribune.com.pk/story/817159/fiscal-year-2014-15-only-12-7-of-adp-spent-in-f-irst-six-months/
The Progress of PTI in KPK 