LAHORE: The Higher Education Commission has failed to conclude an `intellectual dishonesty, submission of fake reports and misappropriation of funds` scam in a research project awarded to the Centre of Excellence in Water Resources Engineering (CEWRE) at the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, even after a lapse of more than nine months.

The `million-dollar` scam in the `Capacity Building of Research, Education and Training in Water Resources Management in Pakistan` awarded in Phase-I of Pak-US Science and Technology Cooperation Programme had surfaced last year. The total initial cost of the project was US $1.076 million including Pakistani share of US $324,610.

The primary objective of the project was to build the institutional capacity by providing education and training to Pakistani graduate students through course work, faculty exchanges as well as basic and applied research in water resources engineering and management.

In order to probe the scam, theHEC on Dec 16 last year had constituted a four-member inquiry committee convened by Isra University, Islamabad Campus, Pro-Rector Prof Dr Altaf Ali G.

Sheikh. The other three committee members were: UET Texila`s civil engineering department chairperson Prof Dr Mumtaz Ahmed Kamal; former chief Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources, Islamabad, Dr Abdul Majeed and HEC Advisor (R&D) Prof Dr Tariq Mahmood.

Though the committee was asked to probe and submit its report to the Commission within 15 days, the inquiry is yet to be concluded. Sources claim that only one meeting of the committee could be held during the last six months due to `lack of interest` of HEC Advisor (R&D) Prof Mahmood.

Committee convener Prof Dr Altaf Ali G. Sheikh did not respond to any question and asl(ed this reporter to contact the HEC.

Another member, Prof Dr Mumtaz Ahmed Kamal, confirmed that the committee had yet to complete its proceedings. He said it would soon complete its probe into the scam.

According to the documents available with Dawn, the researchproject was jointly executed by former UET CEWRE director Prof Dr Muhammad Latif and University of South Carolina, USA, civil and environmental engineering department`s Dr M Hanif Choudhry.

The HEC had released US $181,678 to Principal Investigator (PI) Prof Latif as a first of three installments worth US $500,000, as per revised budget for Pakistani side. The funds to US researcher Dr Choudhry were released by the National Academies, USA. The HEC did not release funds in second and subsequent years because Prof Latif had failed to complete the project activities as envisaged for the first year of the project life.

At the end of the project in December 2009, as an extension of one year was granted by the HEC, PI Prof Latif had submitted the final project report and deposited the unutilised funds of Rs42.591 million (approximately US $42,590).

According to the documents that reflect on misreporting project activities and misappropriation of funds, an independent reviewer had declared the project report `unsatisfactory`.

Later on, a review of the finalreport revealed that Prof Latif had submitted a bogus report on the activities that were never carried out in the project and many of these activities had been performed before the submission of the project proposal or had been funded from other resources as well.

It was alleged that the Principal Investigator had also submitted the false statement of expenditure to the HEC.

According to the initial findings, the CEWRE and the US researchers claimed having conceived and undertaken five studies, which were found to be funded by the HEC itself or were never undertaken. Similarly, the researchers claimed having published six research papers under the Pak-US project but found to be drawn from previously completed studies of dissertations/theses and none of those closely relate to the research studies in the Pak-US Research proposal.

It is learnt that the HEC had also reviewed the financial utilisation of the project funds and found that the funds had been misappropriated by the Principal Investigator and to conceal his wrongdoing, he had submitted thefalse statement of expenditure to the HEC.

Citing an example, the documents reveal, an amount of Rs899,400 was released under the head `Equipment` for the first year of the project but Prof Latif spent Rs3.187 million on purchase of equipment and thus overspent Rs2.288 million. Prof Latif, however, reflected the overspent amount in other budget heads.

The documents say the method of procurement of equipment was also not transparent as most of the items were allegedly procured from two suppliers owned by one of the employees of the Centre and without consulting UET`s fullfledged IT section.

The report also says the Principal Investigator also tried to transfer US $20,000 to the University of South Carolina, USA on the demand of Dr Hanif Choudhry in December 2009, when the project was being closed. The bank, however, did not allow to transfer the funds to the USA based on the weak justification as the purpose of funds transfer remained ambiguous due to issuance of two letters on same day.

The report says there was no student sent either for PhD or Postdoc requiring bench fee. However,sources at CEWRE claimed that Prof Latif`s son Muhammad Jamshed Latif was student of the University of South Carolina, USA, during the period when the project was being executed.

The report has also observed that no capacity building activities for CEWRE, Lahore, were undertaken from the project. `The major focus was on procurement of equipment and visits to the USA. After spending Rs6.634 million, no project objective was achieved causing loss to the national exchequer,` the report observed.

Sources say the HEC is utilising about Rs2.5 billion every year on the research and development and awarding over 200 projects every year to universities` faculty members. However, the sources regret that the case under discussion shows that the HEC does not have any mechanism to monitor such projects including ensuring proper utilisation of research funds.

HEC Advisor (R&D) Prof Dr Tariq Mahmood, who is member as secretary to the inquiry committee, did not respond to phone calls and an SMS sent on his cell phone.

Prof Latif has gone abroad, says a UET spokesman.