All is still not going well at the University of The Gambia (UTG). For the past several months, aggrieved staffers of the UTG have been writing tons of letters protesting their conditions and the way they are treated by the university administration.
Now after several months of foot dragging, the Governing Council of the University of The Gambia finally met to discuss the petitions by the lecturers and other aggrieved staffers.
Most of the complaints from the aggrieved staffers have to do with “the bad experience and or treatment by the Finance Director.” Many of complaints were about non-payment of Per Diems and other entitlements.
Some of the staffers have been complaining about how their salaries were randomly reduced without proper explanation. Other familiar complaints include favouritism and cronyism where the UTG Finance Director a certain Mr Joko and his Senior Management Team (SMT) are accused of deliberately side-lining experienced staff members of the university whom they consider critical.
In one of the petitions, the Finance Director was accused of using the UTG funds to pay his housemaid. The University Governing Council in their recent meeting, reprimanded the Finance Director and urged him to stop forthwith using the UTG funds to exclusively pay his maid for private jobs at the Finance Director’s residence. The Governing Council urged the Finance Director to restore the services of the maid to exclusively work at the UTG serviced houses in BRUSUBI or she be hired privately by the Finance Director.
But some of the aggrieved staffers have rubbished the decision of the Governing Council of UTG as too weak on the Finance Director and his Senior Management Team (SMT). One of the staffers told the Fatu Network: “it has to be understood that many staff actually signed a petition letter and sent it to the Governing Council for the removal of Kojo the Finance Director but still they are spinning and doing a merry-go-round thing. We have also seen that since we submitted our petition to the Governing Council, the allowances of the members of the Governing Council have been increased and since then they have been swaying away from the real issues regarding our concerns as staffers.”
The aggrieved staffers have also questioned why the UTG still does not have a new Vice Chancellor. According to UTG staffers, the members of the Governing Council are paid allowance every month when they do not sit every month. “All these are the reasons why the Governing Council members are in for the Finance Director because they are always in for their own interest. The council monthly sitting allowances need to be investigated. Why are they receiving what they don’t work for?” asked one of the petitioners.
The aggrieved staffers have finally called for the sacking of the Finance Director.
However the Governing Council of the UTG in their response to the aggrieved staffers said the Finance Director was given a three year contract in 2010 with a provision to renew it by mutual agreement. “Given the fact that the Director of Finance is still in office with tacit approval of the University administration, there is an implied mutual agreement for a renewal of the contract in November 2013 for another three years, which ends on 10th November 2016,” the Governing Council.
The Governing Council finally called on the petitioners to direct their concerns to the Senior Management for appropriate action.
