Lincoln Lewis personifies the demise of Guyana

May 23, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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This country has become so lost, nihilistic, and soulless that the infection is consuming most of us. The latest victim is Lincoln Lewis. I am going to argue my case against him by the supply of facts not interpretations. I am going to quote what trade unions and employees have to say about this man.
Lewis, writing in yesterday’s edition of this newspaper, published a letter about me with the headline, “Freddie Kissoon is playing a dangerous game with this society and our highest tertiary institution of learning.” From reading Lewis’s missive, the game centers on my criticism of the current Vice Chancellor of UG and Lewis’s friend, Ivor English, who represents the TUC on the Council of the UG.
This column will consist mostly of quotes from well known persons in this country, one of whom is a very close friend of Lewis on what is taking place at UG and the betrayal of workers’ rights by Lewis and English.
I will ask readers to bear in mind some of these expressions are far harsher than the observations I have penned on UG’s current leadership and on Messrs. English and Lewis.
Before we come to the quotes, it is the wish of this columnist that TUC president, Coretta Mc Donald, does not embarrass herself by remaining silent on Lewis’s attack on her integrity. Ms. McDonald represents a noble profession – the one that educates all humans – teachers.
I cannot recall if it was three or two times, I brought up with Ms. McDonald the question of how English was assigned to the UG Council on behalf of the TUC. Ms. Donald told me that as president she and the TUC executive were not responsible for the selection of English; this was done unilaterally by Lewis.
Now if I am playing games with Guyana and UG, after supplying these quotes, Lewis will have to tell Guyanese if these people too are trying to destroy Guyana and UG. One of the closest comrades of Lewis is Christopher Ram. Here is what Ram had to say about the Vice Chancellor of UG in the Monday, May 19, 2019 edition of KN.
I will reproduce the relevant section from the news item; “Money was spent without any accountability,” Ram said.
He told Kaieteur News that the audit committee functioned to, among other things, oversee audits by the internal auditors and to liaise with external auditors. But when the committee tried to hold meetings, Ram said that there have been efforts by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Ivelaw Lloyd Griffith, and his staff, to block those meetings.
“Even now, Ram said that there has not been a single audit of UG’s spending habits throughout Griffith’s tenure – 2016 to present – and he worries that the lack of scrutiny has left too much to run amok.
“Griffith’s predecessor was heavily scrutinized to account for his foreign travels, which Ram said comes nowhere close to what Griffith is now getting away with.”
Here is what Ram wrote on the same day in another newspaper, the Stabroek News; “One of the early initiatives of Professor Griffith was the rewriting of the Statutes of the University, making the Vice Chancellor the centre of gravity of the University.
“I sat on the Council at the time and it was a struggle by a small group not dependent on the Vice Chancellor, willing to challenge some of the Vice Chancellor’s “initiatives”, including the proposed Georgetown Campus.
“I recall a letter in support of the proposal supplied to Council by the Administration, purportedly by a banking institution whose existence could not be verified,”
Here now is the union writing to its members on the UG administration; “The Unions suspect that the intention was/is to reappoint the VC without any evaluation. We are serving notice that If the Council decides to reappoint the VC without any evaluation at its meeting tomorrow (yesterday) there will be multiple swift and strong responses by staff.
“The Unions will NOT accept the reappointment of the VC until the special audit on spending at the University is completed and the findings made public.”
Here now is the union on the attitude of Lewis and English to workers’ rights; “Mr English has represented the TUC for over six years on the UG Council. During that period, notwithstanding approaches made to him by the UG Unions’ representatives on the Council, he has consistently sided with the University’s management when there are disagreements with the Unions.
“Of grave concern to us is his reckless support of all initiatives over the past three years that have had grave financial implications for the University…Lewis is aware of all of this.”
In another column, I will expose Lewis’s betrayal even further.

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