CHENNAI: University of Madras has built on its various city campuses hostels and guesthouses that have not been exploited fully, causing a revenue loss of nearly 1 crore, an audit report has said.The report, detailed at the Senate meeting on Saturday, details how the university's officials took arbitrary decisions like not collecting rent from caterers on the campus and leasing out the centenary auditorium to a media house, and a consulate general at a concession in violation of rules.The university sanctioned around 25 crore for construction of a PG hostel for research scholars and an international hostel at its Taramani campus that were completed in October 2014 and January 2015. The two hostels began being occupied only in September 2015. Currently, 203 rooms on three floors of the research scholars hostel and the third floor of the international hostel remain unoccupied, causing the university a loss of 27.39 lakh in revenue till January 2017, the report said.The auditors were scathing in their assessment, saying the university had constructed the buildings without assessing student strength and ended up 'locking up' 16.25 crore in capital.Besides, a guesthouse for the UGC-Human Resource Development Centre (HRDC) was handed over in May 2016, but rooms were yet to be used. This along with the closed rooms in the guesthouse on the Marina campus led to a loss of 44 lakh in revenue, the report said. The purpose of the sanctioned grants was defeated and all the rooms must be utilised properly, it suggestedThe audit also wondered why the university did not let out canteens on its campuses on rent in 2015-16, saying this led to foregoing 18.3 lakh in revenue. "When the university is facing financial crunch the reason for allotting canteen as rent free is not forthcoming to audit," the report said.The auditors also questioned how a local language publication and a consulate general were given the centenary auditorium at a concessional rate despite no university official having any discretionary power. This led to a loss of 12.5 lakh, the auditors said.The auditors suggested that the university assess the "loss to the exchequer due to exemption of rent payment for Union and state government functions like swearing-in ceremonies of ministers".

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