Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government audit department has objected to a reimbursement claim by the Kerala University Students’ Union from last year. The official auditors have rejected fuel bills of Rs 9,000 claimed by the union and asked the university authorities to explain certain perceived anomalies.

Though Rs 9,000 can be brushed aside as peanuts, Rs 6,000 of this was claimed to be the cost of filling up petrol in a single motorcycle on 21 March 2018. The same day, petrol worth Rs 1,000 was filled in the same vehicle which had a fuel tank with a capacity of just 11 litres. As per today’s market price, Rs 7,000 would buy 93 litres of petrol.

Another bill dated the same day claimed Rs 2,000 for filling up another vehicle. The bill submitted to the audit department had a digit of the vehicle’s registration number missing. The students service department director explained the lapse as a “clerical error”.

The auditors pointed out that no motorcycle could be filled up with petrol worth Rs 7,000. The second bill was withheld because of the missing digit. Though the audit department sent its report in May, the university authorities have yet to respond to it.

The students service department director told Onmanorama that the vehicles were used for organising the university youth festival last year. He said that the anomalies in the vouchers had been intimated to the university authorities in writing.

The director said that the department usually gives the students’ union the money they ask for and expects bills of actual expenses. The union is supposed to refund any unused fund. The Rs 7,000 bill was a clerical error. The union leadership filled up petrol in various vehicles but submitted a single bill with a single vehicle’s number. This was spotted and an explanation sought. The union has promised to correct any mistake, the director said.

The other bill with the incomplete number was for filling up petrol in the registrar’s vehicle, which was borrowed by the union for works related to the youth festival. They have given an explanation for the missing a digit while preparing the voucher, the director said.