Dheeraj Sharma, Director Indian Institute of Management Rohtakhave reportedly received variable pay much higher than their salaries and the government has written to the institute seeking a response, and also raised objections with its Internal Audit Wing (IAW).
according to Indian Express Report, Ministry of Education (MOE) has marked the objections of its IAW Sharma was given a variable pay of Rs 3.2 crore for a period of three years.
The institute paid the amount for 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21.
The investigation conducted by the IAW found that the amount paid to Sharma, who is facing investigation for allegedly misrepresenting his educational qualifications, was excessive and the process followed for payment of variable pay was ‘invalid’.
In its report to the ministry, the IAW noted that variable pay was more than 200% of the director’s total salary, while no system allows variable pay to be a percentage of a person’s total salary.
President Drupada MurmuAs the visitor of all IIMs, he had received a bunch of complaints. After that, those complaints were forwarded to the government in 2023 and the IAW was tasked to investigate them. The complaints also included irregularities in issuing mobile phones to faculty and allegations of financial irregularities.
The ministry has also asked IIM Rohtak has been directed to take appropriate action and identify the persons and officials involved in the decision. Apart from this, it has also been directed to tell what it is doing to limit the variable salary of the director and what is its plan to recover the excess amount paid.
However, in response to a query, the institute told the newspaper that the variable pay given to Sharma was as per rules. IIM ActHe further added that the variable pay was approved by the Board with the full consensus of all the Board members present.
The institute also denied that any investigation was conducted by the Education Ministry regarding Sharma’s variable pay.
