Dear Editor,
As at 17 January 2018, the University of Guyana Council has not been appointed. The life of the previous Council ended in July 2017, and there can be no excuse for the appointing authorities not to discharge their statutory duty and appoint the Council promptly at the end of the last Council’s tenure of office.
Consequently, there has been no annual general meeting of the Council to receive and discuss the University’s reports of its work and its finances. This is gross negligence on the part of the responsible authorities, who must be held publicly accountable, and explain to the taxpaying nation this negligence. The President of Guyana must take appropriate actions against those responsible.
The non-appointment of the Council resulted in no Finance and General Purpose Committee, Audit Committee, and Council representative presence in standing and statutory University Committees. It would be wrong and illegal for the Vice- Chancellor and/or his cabinet and chief of staff of hand-picked deputies and senior officials from Guyana and abroad to usurp the functions of statutory council. Any such action would be null and void, and must be reversed.
Immediately upon the end of the last Council’s term, there was — for first time in the history of the University — an Investiture Ceremony for the 10th Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University, albeit lavishly expensive. There have been other costly expensive spending beyond the resources of the University since this Vice Chancellor assumed office within the last two years. These must be investigated, and a forensic audit conducted to inform the nation’s tax payers.
Yours faithfully,
Joshua Singh
