In early 2023, people started talking about money problems at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE). To find out what happened, GIPE hired a company called Deloitte India to do a detailed check on how they used money from the Student Information System (SIS). This money is about ₹2.4 crore, which is around $290,000. The check will look at all money transactions from 2019 to 2022.
The audit will carefully review 847 transactions. This means they’ll check things like student fees, payments to vendors, and other costs. Early reports show that about 31% of these transactions had mistakes with the amounts recorded. This means some payments weren’t correct. The investigation found some problems, like not having enough checks on who can approve payments.
GIPE’s board has created a special group to watch over this audit, which will go on until March 2024. This group will check electronic payment records and bank statements to look for unusual activities. They plan to share early findings by December 2023.
To stop any further issues, GIPE has suspended three staff members while they investigate. They’ve also set new rules, like needing two approvals for payments over ₹50,000 (about $6,000) and making sure to check accounts every three months. They also got help from security experts to make SIS safer.
GIPE promises to keep everyone informed during this audit. They’ve told important educational bodies like the University Grants Commission and the Ministry of Education about the situation. If they find any crime, they’ll take legal action. The results of the audit will help GIPE create better rules to avoid problems in the future.
