–says it’s willing to answer how it spent taxpayers’ money

THE University of the West Indies (UWI) has apologised for a “misunderstanding” between itself and Jamaica Parliament’s Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC).

The disagreement stemmed from UWI’s refusal to appear before PAAC to answer how it spent taxpayers’ money.

Signed by Vice-Chancellor, Professor Hilary Beckles, the letter of apology states that the response from UWI’s registrar, after the institution was asked to appear before the PAAC, sought to clarify the principle of accountability rather than obstruct the importance of the engagement.

Last week, UWI, through its registrar, issued a letter to the PAAC stating that it is not answerable to the Jamaica Parliament on how it spends Government subvention.

Parliamentary rules have empowered the PAAC to summon any entity that receives a subvention from Jamaica’s national budget, and request of that entity to provide a report on its expenditure.

Jamaica will contribute JMD$8.3B (US$64.7M) of taxpayers’ money to UWI this year, which accounts for approximately 20 per cent of the institution’s annual budget.

But after they were asked to appear before the committee, UWI said that it is a public autonomous regional body, to which Jamaica is only one contributor.

“The UWI is a public autonomous regional educational institution which serves 17 countries in the Caribbean,” the university declared in its letter.

According to Professor Beckles, however, “the governance model of UWI was created in order to embrace ministers of national governments in order to accommodate this circumstance.

“There is, therefore, no attempt to challenge the authority of the Jamaican Parliament, which we celebrate and recognise as having made the largest single investment in UWI these past 68 years.”

He went on to acknowledge the efforts of the parliament to approve investments that have enabled UWI to grow as a globally respected regional university.

As such, he said that “The University Bursar, therefore, acting on behalf of the entire UWI system, is empowered to honour the request of the PAAC, and will do so as soon as his presence is requested.”