UTG top management dissolved

By Alagie Manneh The Senior Management Team of the University of The Gambia has finally been dissolved, weeks after the university’s staff association demand for its resignation, reliable sources informed The Standard. The staff association has accused the SMT of corruption and misplaced priorities, before embarking on a sit-down. Dr Ismaila Ceesay, President of UTG Faculty and Staff Association and a key figure behind the protest, didn’t confirm the dissolution but however said the Association will meet over the issue. “We will convene a congress today at the MDI during which we will release a statement,” Dr Ceesay said. Sources said today’s convergence will also see the discussion of what agreement has been reached during meetings with higher education officials. But Mr Taal, an SMT member and lecturer at the UTG, condemned the ministry’s move, saying they have no “legal authority whatsoever to make such pronouncements.” Himself a lawyer, Mr Taal added: “It is regrettable that the ministry thinks it can solve this issue by taking such actions. It doesn’t make any sense”. Meanwhile, commenting on the development, Essa Njie, a Graduate Assistant in the institution said news of SMT’s dissolution is a welcoming one, adding that the ‘SMT’ in the first place is an “illegal entity” as there exists no provisions in the UTG code of  which created it. “It [SMT] is only found in senior secondary schools and not in universities,” Mr Njie argued. “What we know in universities are Governing Councils and Senate with the latter as the highest academic decision making body. I hope all other irrelevant positions will as well be scrapped and competent and qualified people be hired for serious work to begin so that the UTG as the country’s highest citadel of knowledge production and dissemination is set on the right footing for the restoration of sanity and academic excellence.”]]>