THE University of Guyana Workers Union (UGWU) and University of Guyana Senior Staff Association (UGSSA) have identified several specific areas of concern into the finances of the University of Guyana (UG).

On Monday last, the two unions began a protest on the Turkeyen Campus where members of the teaching staff called for a financial audit to be done at the institution; they said that funds are being misappropriated instead of being used to develop the teaching space.

This protest was also done because the unions do not accept the three per cent salary increase for UA (academic) staff, and a four per cent increase for UB (support) staff imposed last November and retroactive to January 1, 2018. The university has since stated that it cannot afford further increases.

This misappropriation of funds, the unions allege, is the reason the university is unable to pay further increases to staff.

“This [protest] action served to alert the nation to the situation at the university. Staff are extremely concerned about the university’s finances and believe that the key to resolving the current situation at the institution lies in closely examining those accounts,” a release from the two unions read.

In this release, the unions highlighted that members of staff are unclear about the expenditure of the university, particularly about the funding of certain “units” within the institution.

“The core units of the university (faculties and schools) have been told that there is no money for costs relating to their functioning (essential repairs; payment for stationery and so on) but there is always money available for expenditure on various lectures, conferences and symposia, as well as trips abroad for senior administrators,” the release noted.

Last year, the unions also indicated that there were funds allocated for the Diaspora Centre and the Centre of Excellence for Teaching and Learning, which did not exist at the time.

Detailing their concerns, the unions indicated that they would like to know what became of those funds. Further, they enquired how much money has been spent on “non-essential events” in the last two and half years; a breakdown of any donations made, whether in cash or in kind, along with the university’s own spending; the amount of money has been spent on travel abroad by senior administrators of the university over the same time period; the benefits members of the senior administration now receive and how much money has been spent on such benefits.

Further, the unions opined that UG now has a “bloated senior administration” which has received ‘questionable’ increases.

“While there has been no equivalent expansion in the number of campuses or even in the student body, the institution now has three deputy vice-chancellors (DVCs) as well as a post called the director of strategic initiatives,” the release noted. “We still do not know exactly what the director of strategic initiatives does, because no terms of reference or job description has ever been provided for the post, despite requests.”

And each DVC, as well as the Strategic Initiatives section has their own unit with “ever-increasing staff” –which incur a myriad of costs, according to the unions.

“The staff would like to know whether any analysis has ever been done of the costs of each unit, balanced against the benefits they bring to the university,” it unions said.

The unions further contended that the income and expenditure statements for 2018, shown to them, only illustrate that one of the Faculties/Schools overspent its budget. However, they said that all of the units headed by the DVCs and the vice-chancellery overspent their budgets. They also want to know why this happened.

“There are also questions to be asked about income: are all the university’s income streams for the last two and half years properly accounted for?” they questioned.

According to them, a statement of the university’s gifts and grants received for the last two and half years has never been presented to the current council and they maintain that this is relevant to their queries about sponsorship of various events and travel abroad by senior administrators.

“The public should know that there has been no meeting of the Audit Committee of the current council. There have been no audited statements of the university since 2014,” they said.

The unions also mentioned that they had learned that the university’s senior administration paid themselves the same three percent increase that was imposed on staff in December. According to them, this was not stated at the time that the payment was announced and stressed: “the lack of transparency is striking.”

Exacerbating this particular situation, according to the release, is that the senior administration is appointed by council, and as such would first need to submit their requests for increases to council, which should then be considered by that body.

“The workers of the university are calling on the University Council to exercise proper financial oversight,” the stressed.

“We wish to have a forensic audit done to help answer the questions outlined in this release. The administration has not responded to our call for an audit – instead offering to have a ‘competent, independent arbiter’ examine the financial statements already given to the unions,” they disclosed.

This would not suffice according to them, since this cannot replace an audit.

“The information gained by a forensic audit would enable all parties to have an objective and factual way forward in dealing with the many matters related to the university’s finances,” the unions’ release said.