WHILE the University of Guyana Workers Union [UGWU] and the University of Guyana Senior Staff Association [UGSSA] are pleased that Vice Chancellor (VC), Professor Ivelaw Griffith’s performance will be evaluated before he gets a new contract for employment, the two bodies have urged for more evaluations to be done of senior functionaries of the institution.

In a joint statement issued on Monday, the unions said that, to the best of their knowledge, no evaluation of current administrators has ever taken place, “though we believe new contracts have been awarded to some of them.”

They said that in the interest of accountability, and for the university to learn from the tenure of any senior administrator, this practice should become standard. “We are pleased that the University Council has also moved to establish that evaluation should become a routine aspect of any Vice-Chancellor’s tenure,” the unions said.

The unions said that their stance regarding the VC has been vindicated by the university council and the bodies noted that “two important “decisions were taken by the council last Thursday.

The first decision was the move by the council for the VC to proceed on end-of-contract leave and the second relates to the VC’s request to be considered for a new contract. The unions noted that they have been advocating for evaluations of performance of senior staff. “Council after prolonged debate decided that an evaluation must be done before any decision is made about either award or non-award of the contract,” the two unions noted.
The unions said that they have always noted that the University’s practice is to allow persons to proceed on leave, with exceptions being allowed in certain fairly rare instances. “Usually payment in lieu of leave would be done at the University’s request and in keeping with its needs and the availability of funds. The first Council decision of 15th April was therefore entirely proper. The round robin fiasco represented an attempt to overturn the correct decision. We are therefore grateful that in the end Council recognized the error involved in the directive to allow the Vice-Chancellor to be paid and to remain on the job,” the two bodies said.

The unions said that they are aware that there are members of Council who do not seem to yet grasp key principles, or if they do, did not seem to want them applied in the case of the Vice-Chancellor. “While this is unfortunate, we shall not cease our relentless advocacy of these principles, and we hope that these members of Council will be able to fully endorse them in the future,” the bodies said.

Last Thursday, UG’s Council ordered Professor Ivelaw Griffith to proceed on leave, effective May 28, 2019.

According to a release from the university, the decision was made at a special meeting for the VC to proceed on leave in accordance with the terms and conditions of his contract.
In the interim, the Council has directed that Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic Engagement), Professor Michael Scott, will perform the functions of Vice-Chancellor for the period May 28, 2019 to June 13, 2019.