The Government says there are a number of governance issues within USP, which happened under the leadership of Professor Pal Ahluwalia.

This comes after a group of Professors, Associate Professors, and Senior Staff are said to have sent an open letter that Professor Ahluwalia was not the best choice for USP.

Economy Minister and Fiji’s representative to the USP Council, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says a simple independent investigation could solve governance issues within USP.

“Yet the Council refuses to do that, they all are sought of sabotaging this particular process. All we wanted is a clear and independent assessment on that. And we would be quite happy to after the independent assessment whatever came out and continue with the grant.”

A statement by eleven academics who wish to remain anonymous claims that Professor Ahluwalia was responsible for the brain drain from the University with some of the best minds and most respected academics leaving.

Meanwhile, Sayed-Khaiyum stresses that government maintains its position on good governance.

“But what we are concerned about obviously is that actual good governance issues and that is how you are going to run a University in a transparent manner. There are a lot of people for example who have been appointed without due process. Certain positions that should have been advertised externally or outside the university were only advertised internally.”

The Minister says these and other issues are before the USP Council and whether the Council does anything about them is another matter.