MoU with Bihar government was approved: IGNOU

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) Friday clarified that an MoU signed with the Bihar government on training teachers and government officers was approved by the varsity's board of management and the state cabinet.

A day earlier a news report alleged that the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) had asked the human resource development (HRD) ministry to probe corruption charges against IGNOU vice chancellor V.N. Rajashekharan Pillai.

The report states that according to documents forwarded by CVC to the ministry, a contract worth Rs.4 billion for an MoU signed between IGNOU and the Bihar government for project Samarth which involved training of teachers and government officials, was given without a “transparent bid process”.

However IGNOU refuted the charge saying: “The collaboration between IGNOU and the Bihar government has been unanimously approved by the University’s Board of Management in its meeting held on Nov 19, 2008. IGNOU has had an ongoing collaboration with the Bihar government for many years and the University has the maximum number of learners from this state.”

“Under this project, IGNOU has been chosen as the knowledge partner of Bihar state,” an official statement said.

As per the statement IGNOU shall establish training centers at 400 locations in the state equipped with computer labs.

“The project was finally approved by the full cabinet of Bihar as a sponsored project of IGNOU. The MoU was also approved by the Bihar cabinet and then placed before IGNOU’s Finance committee and approved,” the statement added.

On Oct 17, 2008, Pillai signed the MOU in the presence of the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and seven other ministers, IGNOU said.

Last updated on Nov 6^th, 2009 at 17:18 pm IST--IANS