UG Vice Chancellor to proceed on leave from Tuesday

-after council reverses round-robin vote

Ivelaw Griffith
Ivelaw Griffith

University of Guyana (UG) Vice Chancellor Professor Ivelaw Griffith will proceed on end-of-contract leave on Tuesday after the UG council reversed a contentious round-robin vote that had itself reversed a previous decision to send the official on the standard leave.

The about-turn came at a special meeting of the UG council on Thursday and followed strident protests by the University of Guyana Senior Staff Association (UGSSA) and the University of Guyana Workers Union (UGWU) that Griffith be sent on leave.

Griffith was due to go on leave from May 13th but had remained on the job after the round-robin vote saw a decision being made to pay him in lieu of leave. UGSSA head Jewel Thomas told Stabroek News last night, however, that Thursday’s council meeting, which lasted for several hours, reversed that action.

“Council reversed the decision in terms of sending him on leave. We made the decision that he should proceed on leave as of next week Tuesday and would be paid in lieu of leave for the days he was on the job,” Thomas said while pointing out that for the 12 days that Griffith worked when he was supposed to be on leave, he will be paid more than $1 million.

She said that the round-robin decision and whether it was appropriate was discussed while the matter of what to do with the VC’s contract also came under the spotlight.

While it is customary for there to be an evaluation from all the in-house stakeholders at the university on the VC’s performance, one was not done for Griffith’s tenure, which, Thomas said, complicates the process.

However, she said they have agreed to put that evaluation process on the agenda for the next council meeting which is slated for June 12th.

Thomas said that they are not happy, given the fact that their initial position was for Griffith to go on his end-of-contract leave and not be paid for working, which she said has compounded the situation.

“If he had gone on leave as he was supposed to have gone on May 13th, then we would not have had to pay so much. We cannot view that as being an option situation, it’s very distressing. The university is wrestling with many problems that are associated with cash flow and this money could’ve gone to some of those issues,” Thomas added.

In the meantime, the Council has directed Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic Engagement, Professor Michael Scott, to perform the functions of the VC (acting) for the period May 28th to June 13th.

In addition to sending the VC on leave, the UGSSA and the UGWU had indicated that they did not trust the guidance of Pro-Chancellor Major General (Ret’d) Joseph Singh.

A statement from the unions had said that having taken into consideration, decisions made by Singh over the past few months, they have concluded that “he has guided the council in a direction that is not in the interests of our sole national University”.

They added, “Under his leadership, the welfare and interests of students, faculty and staff have been neglected and undermined…”

The unions related that during a meeting comprising the university’s faculty and staff who are members of the unions, they came to certain resolutions about the ongoing situation.

They had called upon the council to stand by its decision made on April 15th to allow the VC to proceed on routine end-of-contract leave. They added that should the decision be allowed to stand, and should the council proceed with the payment of funds in lieu of leave on the instruction of the VC, this will be interpreted as setting a precedent, and in future, the university must also pay staff members in lieu of leave at their request, and without regard to the university’s own financial situation and its own requirements. “If the university denies any such request from staff members, legal challenges will ensue,” the unions had warned.

The unions have been at odds with Griffith on a variety of issues. Among other things, they have raised issues about excessive spending by the university on non-infrastructural and services-related items while certain sections and services are greatly lacking.