Punjab Study

LAHORE:The issue related to alleged administrative and financial embezzlement at the University of Engineering & Technology s Institute of Business and Management (IB&M) has taken a new turn with reports that the varsity s resident auditor was also an applicant for admission to the institute.

Some faculty members had recently published a white paper highlighting alleged administrative and financial embezzlement at the varsity s Institute of Business and Management.

According to sources the varsity administration conducted internal audit of the institute by resident auditor Muhammad Arshad Baig in which everything was allegedly a clean chit and the content of the white paper were rejected.

However a UET spokesman in a statement issued on Friday said there was no bar on varsity employees to seek admission to the IB&M and everything was followed on merit. He said resident auditor Muhammad Arshad Baig had applied for admission to IB&M but so far he had not secured admission.

The spokesman said the external audit of the varsity s IB&M would begin from Saturday (today) which would clear the situation as well as allegations of corruption at the IB&M.

He also refuted the allegation the resident auditor presented his report and allegedly covered corruption just to seek admission. He said the officer used to conduct audit of the entire varsity and not just of the institute and was appointed by the Punjab government. He added external audit could highlight any discrepancy if found.

Admission controversy at PUICS: A controversy has erupted over the recent admissions to MPhil programme at the Punjab University s Institute of Communication Studies (PUICS).

Sources at PUICS said the institute displayed lists for its MPhil Research and Professional tracks recently and a number of candidates who secured highest marks in the entry tests were dropped during interviews for their failure to satisfy the interview panel. Those reportedly who failed to clear the interview were allegedly favoured during the entry test. Last month, the PUICS management cancelled its entry test for MPhil following reports regarding leakage of the paper. Afterwards, a new test was given to the candidates for attempting. The sources further said the PUICS administration was looking into possibility of favouring the top scorers in the entry tests as they had miserably failed in the interviews. They added PUICS director had also directed the inquiry committee to recheck entry test of the candidates who despite securing top marks could not clear the interviews.

However there are those who alleged that some PUICS officials dropped brilliant students despite their best performance in the interview just to accommodate some blue-eyed individuals. Sources said the PU administration was likely to probe into the whole issue to ascertain the facts.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that PU inquiry committee which was constituted to probe leakage of entry test for admission to MPhil programme at the ICS has yet to submit its report despite passage of almost a month.The news.