Did IIM Rohtak director receive ₹3.2 crore variable payout? Govt flags ’amount more than salary’

Dheeraj Sharma, the director of IIM Rohtak, has allegedly received significantly more variable pay than his salary and the government has written to the institution seeking a response while flagging objections from its Internal Audit Wing (IAW).

According to the Indian Express report, the Ministry of Education (MoE) has flagged objections of its IAW about ₹3.2 crore variable pay paid to Sharma for the period of three years.

The institute paid the amount for 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21.

The probe by the IAW found that the amount paid to Sharma, who is reportedly facing scrutiny for allegedly misrepresenting his educational qualifications, is significantly more and the procedure adopted for making payment of variable pay is ‘void’.

In its report to the ministry, the IAW noted that variable pay is more than 200% of the Director’s total emoluments, when any system allows variable pay to be a percentage of a person’s total emoluments.

President Droupadi Murmu, in her capacity as visitor of all IIMs, had received a set of complaints. Following that, those complaints were forwarded to the government in 2023 and and IAW was tasked to probe them. The complaints also alleged irregular issuance of mobile phones to faculty, and allegations of financial irregularities.

The ministry has also asked IIM Rohtak to take appropriate action and identify the persons and officers involved in the decision. Further, it has directed too outline what it is doing to limit the director’s variable pay and its plans to recover the excess amount paid.

However, responding to a query, the institute told the newspaper that variable pay paid to Sharma was done as per the IIM Act, adding that the variable pay was approved by the board with complete consensus of all the attendee board members.

The institute also denied that there was an inquiry conducted by the Ministry of Education related to Sharma’s variable pay.