THE University of Guyana Workers Union [UGWU] and the University of Guyana Senior Staff Association [UGSSA] have intensified their calls for the ouster of Vice Chancellor, Professor, Ivelaw Griffith.

The unions are also calling for the resignation of Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Council, Major-General (Ret’d) Joseph Singh and the non-renewal of the Vice Chancellor’s contract which ends on June, 13, 2019. The unions also plan to write the Government and President David Granger to highlight various issues being faced at the University of Guyana. “The VC mantra is about affordability and the Pro-Chancellor has adopted that mantra that everything has to be affordable, and this is only considered when looking at staff but nothing to do with the VC,” UGSSA President, Dr. Jewel Thomas said.

She explained that the current VC is the highest paid in the University’s history while he expects the institution to pay for his “high-maintenance” lifestyle. “The brand new black SUV assigned to him was purchased at a great cost by UG because the car used by the previous VC was not good enough for him, we pay for the gasoline and the driver used, and when the VC is out the vehicle has to be running all the time so the air conditioning is to his liking,” Dr. Thomas noted.

She explained that the VC does not drive himself, but needs a driver at all times and that overtime along with his schedule is paid by UG. Dr. Thomas said the VC is always complaining how much the staff is demanding and costing UG but does not share how much he is costing the institution to maintain his lifestyle.
“He gets a gratuity, a bonus; he had even requested a credit card when he became VC and the university pays for whatever is on the card, we also know that his salary is higher than any other VC and he also only travels business class which is paid by UG, he will tell you he get free trips, ask him how many occasions were free,” the UGSSA President said.

She continued: “He also requested an increase in allowances in accordance to Ministerial levels; Minister of the Government… the Pro-Chancellor has refused to tell us what is in the VC’s contract.”

Dr. Thomas said the university is a national one maintained with taxpayer’s funds and nothing should be kept secret from council. “We were told that we cannot know how much we are spending on the VC and there have been questions that have been asked and not been answered, members of the media should now go and ask and find out, what I can say is that we cannot afford him, this contract that he got no other VC should ever get,” the UGSSA President said.

Attacks
Professor Griffith himself recently cleared the air on what he describes as “egregious misinformation” being reported about his administration of the tertiary institution. He had tied those ‘attacks’ to efforts by some to scuttle his chances of getting a renewal of his contract. “For some time now I have been silent as misinformation, outright fabrications, and innuendo have been published as journalism products and facilitated as letters to the editor,” he said in his own letter to the editor. “These have been designed to malign and hurt the image of the university and me, and to impede the progress we are making by doing tangible things to improve the service to students and staff.”

He directed focus to two specific news reports, published recently by the Kaieteur News; these were: “No toilet paper and soap for staff, but UG spent over $400,000 to cater dinner for eight”, and “UG executives tripled their salaries in five years.”

“Not only is it patently inaccurate to assert that there is no toilet paper and soap at UG, but the claim that $400,000 was spent on a dinner for eight individuals is patently false! I say this without fear of contradiction,” he stressed. At the very least, he said that a reporter should have checked with personnel from the university for a comment or to seek evidence about that dinner.

As regards the salary increases, he opined also: “The public and the profession of journalism would have been better served had someone verified the accuracy of the assertion by checking with the Personnel Officer or the Bursar for a comment and secure the appropriate information and explanations.”

In both of those news reports, it was reported that the information was provided by the UG workers’ unions, which in recent times have been at loggerheads with the university over salary increases and a lack of development of the teaching space.

“It is well known that the union leaders behind these stories have their agendas against the administration and me in particular, and with my current contract ending soon, they have stepped up their campaign to force me out,” the principal alleged in his letter. He went on to claim that the unions are working to “sour the public space and stoke discontent in advance of the Council meeting,” in light of his recent expression of interest in renewing his contract as Vice-Chancellor.

Audit of books
Recently, the Ministry of Education notified the Vice-Chancellor’s office of the unions’ request for a forensic audit into the university’s spending. This request came after the unions had staged peaceful picketing exercises for weeks against what they deemed the ‘misappropriation’ of UG funds. Though the VC indicated to this newspaper that all spending was in keeping with his drive to transform the university, he expressed that the administration is willing to have its financial position examined by any competent and independent arbiter.

The administration, on the other hand, requested several documents from the unions, including their Articles of Association, Certificates of Recognition, Statements of Income and Expenditure for recent years, and recent Annual Returns and audited statements.
Subsequent to those matters, the news reports surfaced. Not wishing to engage in a “tit-for tat”, the VC said that he has remained silent on matters reported thus far.
“My silence was and is guided by my desire to avoid an information tit-for-tat and to foster an environment of positive dialogue,” he said, but continued: “However, some recent egregious misinformation suggests the need to end the silence about things published and the journalism used.”

Tangible achievements
In his letter too, the VC directed focus to the “tangible things” done under his leadership that have resulted in the improvement of the university.

These include the newly commissioned US$665,000 Jay and Sylvia Sobhraj Centre for the Behavioural Sciences and Research; the launch of the School of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation (SEBI) in 2017; the launch of new degree programmes in Petroleum Engineering, Food Science, Youth Work, Clinical Psychology, and in Nursing and Civil Engineering in Berbice, this year.

He reminded too that significant improvements were made to several of the university’s facilities at both campuses, while new spaces were developed. And through support from the Ministry of Natural Resources, Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), and Schlumberger, UG now has a $2B geotechnical lab for students studying petroleum and mining engineering.

“We also regained the accreditation of our School of Medicine in 2017. That is a special point of pride,” Griffith highlighted, while noting that just this past academic year, hundreds of students have participated in undergraduate research conferences overseas.
Continuing in similar vein, he noted that the new Math and Science Classroom building on campus will be completed soon, while work will begin later this year on a new building to house the Personnel Department and the Bursary.

“As a nation, we are at a critical moment in our national development, and partisan and personal agendas aside, Guyana and the Guyanese people have nothing to gain when important journalistic institutions such as yours facilitate the unquestioned dissemination of the kind of misinformation we have witnessed,” Professor Griffith said.
To quell this, he underscored: “Please know that I as well as other university officials would be happy to offer interviews to provide the appropriate contextual and factual information that can be used in your reporting on the matters that are of critical importance to our national university and our nation.”