NEW DELHI: Studying the books of over 130 schools to check if their proposal to hike fees was justified, Delhi government has found a range of “financial malpractices” in most of them. The government is in the process of informing schools and will initiate action against them soon. Some of the chartered accountants empanelled to examine records will also be blacklisted for helping schools cook their books.In most cases, the nature of malpractice belongs to one of two categories — either the school has undisclosed savings or income and is actually showing a deficit or surplus funds have been transferred to other societies, schools (under the same management) or have been used to buy land.“The project management unit at Directorate of Education studied the reports to see if the fees can be increased. They found that parents are right and that the hikes have generally been illegitimate,” a source said.Only five of the 138 schools that had sought permission for increase in fees in 2016-17 have been allowed to do so. Moreover, only 166 of the 410 schools on public land that are required to secure government permission before raising fees, had applied. Of these, 28 had withdrawn their applications.In some cases, the reserves of undeclared or transferred cash run into crores. For instance, a Dwarka school in its audit report summary said, “Paid Rs 1.76 crore during 2013-14 to 2015-16 to other schools under the same management and society.” The transfer, the report said, has “been treated as the expenditure under the head ‘Educational Development Assistance.”Another school in Janakpuri apparently owns property in Bakhargarh worth Rs 8,81,77,763 “acquired with express purpose of setting up a school.” No school was started there, the report said, and “property ownership documents have not been made available by the CA firm” suggesting collusion with government officials.Two schools in Vasant Vihar and Laxmi Nagar “transferred” Rs 2 crore and Rs 3.06 lakh, respectively, to their parent bodies. The principal of the Vasant Vihar school said that Rs 2 crore is a fixed deposit, which the Trust it was allegedly “transferred” to has not used.“We took a loan from the Trust for construction and repaid it with the FD, which the wasn’t used by it. That money will come back to the school. We sought a fee hike because teachers’ salaries would be increased,” the principal said.Another school in Rohini neglected to “consider the income from investments” in their fee hike proposal and showed an “overall shortfall of Rs 185.79 lakh.” Their investments in FDRs for the year ending March 31, 2016 were worth Rs 38.58 crore.Schools charge development fees for their growth. If they save some of what they earn, they put it away for a branch. But they can’t increase fees to fund another school. “You can’t increase fees till you have exhausted your reserves,” said a government official.The conditions of land allotment for schools on public land require government’s nod for fee hike, but it took a high court judgment in January 2016 to enforce it.