A request has been made for the Auditor General’s Office to conduct a special audit on the University of Guyana’s (UGs) finances which Vice Chancellor, Professor Ivelaw Lloyd Griffith, has since welcomed.

In a release on Thursday, the university indicated that a letter to the UG Council from the Ministry of Education advised the institution of the request based on the request of the unions at UG.

“The Administration welcomes the opportunity to clear the air on the allegations and assertions by the unions and other individuals,” Griffith said, adding: “We have long indicated such, both directly to the UG Unions and in my two recent memoranda to the University community.”

Providing a history on the events unfolding, the university indicated that in January 2019, the Administration told two of its unions that the institution was not in a position to pay further salary increases for 2018.

The university says that this was after it paid a four per cent salary increase to academic staff and three per cent to non-academic staff, both tax free, in December 2018.
On February 13, 2019, the University of Guyana Workers Union (UGWU) and the University of Guyana Senior Staff Association (UGSSA) protested at the Turkeyen Campus with members calling for a financial audit to be done at the institution.

On the same day, in an update to the members of the UG Community on the industrial climate at Turkeyen and following the call for a forensic financial audit, the Vice Chancellor said that the Administration is willing to have its financial position examined by any competent and independent arbiter. “Following the unions resumption of picketing at Turkeyen on March 15, Vice-Chancellor Griffith, in a further update to the UG community, reiterated the Administration’s willingness to have an audit done by an independent arbiter,” the release stated.

It also noted that the Administration later decided to turn the dispute over to the Labour Department for conciliation.

“The current impasse follows the initiative by Pro-Chancellor, Major Gen. (Ret.) Joseph Singh, to facilitate some ‘Listening Sessions’ with the Unions and the Administration by a three-member panel of the University Council and the Vice-Chancellor’s March 8 invitation to meet with the Unions to resume the negotiations proved futile,” the release stated.
The University stated that it holds the view that talks with the unions should not focus exclusively on salaries and that performance and a Collective Bargaining Agreement should also be discussed.

In the meanwhile, the UG Administration is awaiting a response from the unions to its “weeks-old request” for several documents as part of efforts to be consistent in the pursuit of accountability and transparency. The documents sought include their Articles of Association, Certificates of Recognition, Statements of Income and Expenditure for recent years, and recent Annual Returns and audited statements.