State Educational dept to conduct financial audit of all institutions: Partha

Kolkata: State Education minister Partha Chatterjee said at the state assembly on Monday that his department has plans to conduct financial audit of all educational institutions across the state. The department feels that the audit will help them have a comprehensive idea on how the institutes are utilising the funds allocated by the Education department.

"We will not be able to assess the real financial condition of an institution if we do not go for audit. It will also help us in having a proper idea of the fund utilisation by the institutions," Chatterjee said.

He maintained that the process of audit has already began at the university level and gradually it will be extended to school level. " Our government under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee has brought a sea change in the education system. The previous Left Front government had turned a blind eye to the excellence in education and there has been a large amount of fund misutilisation. We do not want repetition of such things," the minister said.

A senior official at the Education department said there has been some cases when the department has witnessed that funds have not been utilised or have been deposited at banks with interest. "We are also taking strong action in such cases," the official said.

The Education department has recently announced an audit of the government funds spent by Presidency University in the wake of a number of vacant seats in the University. The announcement came after Chatterjee held a meeting with the alumni association where the later alleged that the University is nonplussed even after as many as 300 seats in the University are lying vacant.