Dear Editor,
The University of Guyana is named as a defendant in legal proceedings that commenced in Guyana’s High Court requesting damages over $7,000,000 (seven million dollars) for defamation (libel) committed by the defendants on June 25, 2023. Attorneys for former UG lecturer, Dr. Wayne Forde, named the University of Guyana as the purported author of the maliciously false and libelous statements and the body responsible for disseminating the said statements to Kaieteur News on June 25, 2023, which published an article entitled – Letter about SEBI Part of a Series of Worrisome Behaviours by Dr. Wayne Forde – UG.
The lawsuit arises from UG’s response to an article in Kaieteur News on June 23, 2023 titled ‘Unethical conduct at University of Guyana’s School of Business’. The article reported that a complaint and a request for an investigation will be filed with the Ministry of Education and Finance describing the egregious code of conduct violations that are ignored after written complaints and other anomalies at (SEBI). The nature of the violations in the complaint included untruthfulness, misleading by distortion of information, vile and abusive language and expression, failure to accord a high standard of integrity, honesty, and ethical values in the discharge of duties, and the misuse and abuse of power or position in the discharge of duties, and more (the University of Guyana Code of Conduct, 2007). The complaint cited incidents of School Board Members knowingly voting to adopt wrong meeting minutes, disrespectful and vile conduct, and abuse of position and power, to name a few.
Dr. Forde, author of the article, asked Kaieteur News not to publish the article without further consultation and stated: Please do not publish this information before we discuss the matter further. Kaieteur News did not honour the request and published the article without consent. UG responded with retaliatory and defamatory comments that violated Guyana’s Defamation Act, triggering a Defamation Lawsuit. The lawsuit requests the Honourable Court to grant a mandatory injunction to remove the libelous article published on page 17 of Kaieteur News on June 25, 2023, and award damages and costs.
Sincerely,
Dr. Wayne Forde
