Policy Recommendation for the Financial Management and Administration of the UTG and MDI
Written by: Ebrahim D. Ndure
School of International and Public Affairs
Columbia University
New York
Date: June 24, 2012
To:
Point Newspaper, Gambia Moral Congress, Gambia Government, Faculty and
Students, Parents, Donors, Investors, and Stakeholders of UTG and MDI
I
am writing because I am a student at Columbia University in New York,
and a stakeholder in the UTG and MDI. As the defense counsel for Dr.
Touray, Badou Conteh cross-examines Professor Kah; my conscience has
forced me to submit this policy recommendation for the financial
management and administration of the UTG and MDI. Barrister Mai N.K.
Fatty, thank you for your critical analysis of this case and counter
arguing the government press release in favor of Professor Kah. ‘The
Gambian judiciary is responsible and the government should not
interfere.” You got it right!
Policy Recommendations:
In
order to ensure transparency, accountability, and cultivate a
professional financial accounting system, the UTG and MDI financial
accounts should be managed by the UTG governing council, Ministry of
Higher Education, and an Independent Accounting Agency
Financial
transactions concerning the UTG and MDI should be reviewed, honored and
approved by the UTG governing council, Ministry of Higher Education,
and the Independent Accounting Agency. They should convene an “urgent”
meeting to rescind the signatories of Professor Kah and his wife Dr.
Kah, from the UTG and MDI accounts to ensure reliable and credible
financial management
In
the event that the Executive, Legislative or Judiciary request copies
of the UTG and MDI financial statement, as in the case of Professor Kah,
it has to be released in a sealed enveloped from the Independent
Accounting Agency sent directly to them. No person, professor or staff
should be allowed to tender such document before the government agencies
by him or herself. The Banjul Magistrates’ Court or defense counsel
should have ordered the financial statement of (emphasis) both UTG and MDI since Professor Kah and his wife began to sign the accounts and not limiting the investigation to 2010.
To
determine if financial mismanagement occurred in the UTG and MDI, the
defense council should look beyond the financial statement submitted by
Professor. Rather the defense should ask for the income statement or statement of operations and statement of cash flows to capture all the cash inflows and cash outflows since Professor Kah and his wife began to sign the UTG and MDI accounts.
The
UTG and MDI should conduct independent audits annually and the report
of the audits should be made public and available to all stakeholders
including faculty and staff, parents of students, donors, creditors,
investors, regulators and the press.
More
than anything else, the UTG seriously needs a University Administrator,
tasked not only to oversee the daily and efficient operation of the UTG
and MDI, but also to monitor, evaluate, and benchmark education and
skill development. With all due respect, Professor Kah is an electronic
engineer and lacks these important management and administrative
skills.
Undeniably,
Professor Kah is assigned excessive academic responsibilities that he
is certainly unable to execute professionally. For instance, he is the
Vice Chancellor, Professor of ICT, Overseer of UTG and MDI, and perhaps
serves as the financial manager of the UTG. His duties should be
streamlined to uphold his primary position as Professorship, so that he
can focus on teaching and developing the technological infrastructure of
the UTG
The
UTG website needs someone with media experience to manage and update
its content because it is the public image and should serve as the
open-source knowledge base of the UTG. The information it contains is
disappointingly old and outdated
Also,
the students should be provided with collegiate email to manage their
academic and professional correspondence and portfolio. Currently, they
use yahoo email that reflects no academic culture. A simple student's
email that reads ebrahim.ndure@utg.edu would be appropriate.
Most
significant, an online course management software, should be created
for each student to access course lectures, submit individual and group
assignments, hold discussions, evaluate courses, and inter alia
communicate with their Professors.
I
respectfully submit this policy recommendation as a way forward based
on my knowledge of the case against Professor Kah, constantly visiting
the UTG, and being a stakeholder of the institution and as a Gambian
citizen.
This policy recommendation is available at: