 |
|
August 16, 2002: In the Stabroek News of Tuesday, August 8, 2000 on page 15, there appeared a story with this caption: " LUTCHMAN SUES UG FOR $9.43M." The article gives a breakdown of the earnings of Dr. Lutchman as UG's head taken from court documents. It says the figure was arrived at based on Dr. Lutchman's monthly salary of $808.000.
The breakdown of this $9.43 M makes for very interesting reading. According to the article, of that $9.43, $5.25M represents six months and fifteen days gross salary; a housing grant for the same period of $1.4M; leave passage of one first class return ticket to London worth $ 746,700; a gratuity of $727,272; yard maintenance of $146,282; security of $903,500 and a driver at 243, 516. This type of salary started under Hoyte's presidency and was increased by 5% under the Janet Jagan's presidency.
The University of Guyana is a public sector organization funded by the state. A check of public sector salaries reveal that the office of the UG Vice-Chancellor is the highest paid public sector job funded locally and not by an international organization. On a comparative scale these include cabinet ministers, permanent secretaries, the Chancellor, the Chief Justice, the head of the GDF, the head of the GPF, the Governor of the Central Bank. Salaries paid to certain members of the public sector are higher than the UG Vice Chancellor's salary but these are paid by foreign institutions like the World Bank, for example, some salaries in the Guyana Revenue Authority fall within this category.
For that kind of money, the University of Guyana should be a closely watched institution, made to be accountable to the people of Guyana. Now please don't get me wrong; this article is not about Dr. Lutchman, it is not about any past or present vice-chancellor. It is about the University of Guyana and the manner in which it operates given the awesome amount of money poured into it by the state of Guyana which is one of the poorest territories in the world and the second poorest in CARICOM. When a poor country can allocate so much money to a single institution, then the country must expect and demand administrative integrity from it.
The university's record on administrative propriety is the poorest in Guyana. I have worked at UG for sixteen years and not even the boy scouts organization treats adherence to rules, regulations and proper procedures so carelessly as the University of Guyana. I believe even the most uneducated Guyanese would be shocked and left flabbergasted to know how one of the country's most precious institutions is run. Despite all the controversies that surround organizations like the Guyana Police Force, the Trade Union Congress, the PPP and the PNC, the PHG among others, there is more respect for rules and regulations in those organizations than at the University of Guyana. There is only one word to describe what goes on there LAWLESSNESS
If you apply, you get the job according to if the directorate wants to give it to you. If the directorate likes you, your contract is renewed. If the directorate doesn't like you, out you go without any explanation. If the directorate thinks you haven't done sufficient teaching and research, you are out, while at the same time, the very directorate would turn a blind eye to those who are guilty of the same failings. If the directorate likes you, you get how much money you want to travel with, you get whatever perks you want, you do as you like. If the directorate doesn't like you, you remain in a corner and grow old and die in the work a broken person. The directorate does not play by the rules, have no time for rules and just run the place as they like. The directorate is anti-government and bluntly racist. A majority of workers at UG are nice people who are not racially motivated. It is the directorate that is. They are a nasty, spiteful group that would have no hesitation in penalizing you based on your race and the politics you embrace. They believe they own UG.
Some stories of administrative mis- behaviour are so horrible that UG cries out for a human rights investigative panel. This is where civil society becomes overbearingly hypocritical. This is one Guyanese who is not impressed with the Guyana Human Rights Association, and I have written a long time ago that a new body should come up and replace the McCormack outfit. Despite the absolute cowboy administrative culture that characterizes UG, the GHRA has never made a statement on human rights violations at UG. To think these people are so barefaced that the two words HUMAN RIGHTS are part of their name but they are totally oblivious to the lawlessness that goes on there. Guess why? The culprits are not government people so UG doesn't fit into the GHRA's political agenda.
And what about our goodly newspaper, THE STABROEK NEWS, that has seven editorials per week but none has ever been on the cowboys at UG. Imagine a paper having an editorial each day over the past ten years but never offered a commentary on the wrongs being perpetrated at UG. Oh, yes, I forgot. There was once an editorial note that questioned the UG Council's reversal of my dismissal. Civil Society should hang its head in shame, especially the private sector that raises money for UG. It just boggles the mind that here is an institution that does so many wrongs, that has a directorate that abuses lecturers and staff, that uses racial and political criteria to promote and demote staff members but the society remains silent.
Anyone who has read my columns since 1992 would be extremely dishonest to say that I have not been a constant critic of the government. But you have to give jack his jacket. The government has tried its best to get the Council to bring some financial and administrative propriety to UG. The Council has tried to stem the human rights abuse and the racial and political discrimination. But the government plays games too as it did with the Vice-Chancellor's appointment. In another article, I will relate to readers the cowboy rules under which UG is run but I will leave you with the story of a UG lecturer who is the CEO of private firm and earns US$6000 per month. He never shows up at UG but when in 2000, he wanted a duty free car, he appeared, collected it, then disappeared again. You ain't see or hear nothing yet.