Beckles committee says UWI council deviated from protocol

The chancellor of The University of the West Indies (UWI) not only stopped the early consideration of the contract renewal of the institution’s vice chancellor but also presided over a process that deviated from established procedures, an internal investigation has found.

Those conclusions are contained in a report that a controversial committee set up by the vice chancellor, Sir Hilary Beckles, submitted this month, and is due to go before the University Council next month.

The council is the UWI’s highest decision-making body and is chaired by the Chancellor, Robert Bermudez, the principal officer of the university. The vice chancellor is the executive head.

The Sunday Gleaner reported in January that Beckles had appointed a six-member committee to investigate the process involved in the renewal of his contract, an action widely viewed across the regional university as tantamount to a subordinate investigating his boss.

Seven major conclusions and more than a dozen major findings are contained in the near-200-page document seen by The Sunday Gleaner.

It said a procedure established in 2006 for the reappointment of vice chancellors “was not followed” in the renewal of Beckles’ contract in 2021 for a second six-year term. Beckles, a celebrated historian, was first appointed on May 1, 2015.

Vice chancellor contracts are typically for six years and the procedure stipulates that the chancellor should appoint a three-person committee in the fifth-year to conduct a performance evaluation of the sitting vice chancellor. The vice should also do a self-evaluation.

That process was followed in 2009 when the contract of then vice chancellor, Professor E. Nigel Harris, was coming to an end, according to the committee. Harris went on to serve for a second term, demitting office in April 2015.

The 2006 procedure also mandated a formal annual review of the vice chancellor’s self-assessment, which is separate from the one that has to be done for the renewal of a contract.

The annual review of the vice chancellor and other academic and senior administrative staff in the penultimate year of their contract is an established one.

An item dealing with the contract renewal was put on the draft agendas for the University Council’s annual business meetings in May and July 2020, which, by then, occurred in the sixth year of Beckles’ contract, the committee said.

However, Bermudez reportedly instructed University Registrar Dr Maurice Smith to remove the item from the agendas for the two meetings.

SELF-ASSESSMENT REQUEST

Smith had requested Beckles’ self-assessment on July 25, 2020, which was submitted on August 6, 2020 after which an evaluation committee, chaired by Sir Paul Altman, was set up.

That committee’s October 2020 report was presented at a special meeting of the University Council on January 20, 2021

Among the things considered by Altman’s committee was the controversial 2020 governance report commissioned by the chancellor.

Critics believed the report, which accused the university of maintaining an unwieldy and unaccountable structure, was aimed at tarring Beckles’ stewardship and to block his reappointment.

At a contentious meeting on April 30, 2021, the University Council approved the renewal of Beckles’ contract despite objections from Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, two of 17 contributing Caribbean nations to whom the financially struggling but global-ranked institution is ultimately accountable.

But Beckles’ committee concluded that the established procedures were not followed and that Altman’s evaluation committee formed in the sixth year of the contract “was a deviation” from the procedures.

“Council’s decision to renew the incumbent VC’s contract on April 30, 2021, the final day of the sixth year of the contract and three months before the expiration of his 2015 contract on July 31, 2021, was inconsistent with the general practice of affording six months’ notice for renewal of contract of senior managers as well as ASAP (academic and senior administrative and professional) staff of The UWI,” one of the conclusions read.

According to the leaked report, the University Council is not bound by its previous decisions, but “until any decision is amended or reversed, such decision would apply”.

The recommendations included changes to the UWI laws to address the reappointment of the vice chancellor; standardisation of the vice chancellor’s contract; orientation for new council members on university human resource policies; changes to the structure of the committee to evaluate the vice chancellor, among others.

It is not quite clear what will be the consequences of a deviation, but the report is expected to be among the agenda items for next month’s meeting of the council.

The UWI said it could not comment on the findings and conclusions because the matter was still “actively being addressed internally”.

“Matters pertaining to the agenda and deliberations of University Council (which is a closed meeting) are confidential, and so the university is not at liberty to divulge the council meeting’s agenda at this time,” a spokesperson told The Sunday Gleaner on Friday.

The committee was chaired by Jamaican lawyer and former president of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, Milton Samuda, who did not respond to a request last Friday for a statement on the status of the report.

The other members were Dr Canute Thompson, Ambassador Gillian Bristol, Dr Indira Rampersad and Hyram Forde.

A sixth member, Professor Eddy Ventose, resigned weeks after his appointment and after he reportedly said the committee members made conclusions before their probe.

QUESTIONS LEFT UNANSWERED

Gaps in the report such as why the contract renewal was removed and why it took longer than expected for the evaluation process to start remain as the chancellor did not answer questions submitted to him on those issues.

Bermudez was asked 15 questions and given 72 hours to respond based on a letter Samuda sent him in December.

The chancellor was not happy and responded to both Samuda and Beckles expressing concerns.

He told Samuda of his “personal concern” about the establishment of the committee and “its purported authority” even as he acknowledged the questions that he said involved matters that have been before the university council and him in his official capacity.

“I consider it proper and appropriate that I draw this letter to the attention of the members of council before I provide a response, if at all,” added the Trinidadian businessman, who took the reins as chancellor in 2017 for a seven-year term.

Bermudez told Beckles that the establishment of the committee and its request of him were of “grave concern” and he would raise the issue with the council members “for their consideration and such action as they may consider appropriate”.

The nature of the chancellor’s response has raised questions about Beckles’ authority to establish the so-called UWI Human Resource Management Review Committee with a remit to investigate the actions of the council to which he is accountable, and by involving persons who report to him.

Speaking before a Jamaican parliamentary committee, the university registrar denied that Beckles was investigating Bermudez.

UWI STATEMENT

In a statement after The Sunday Gleaner’s January report, the UWI said that at a meeting on July 30 last year, the council was notified of Beckles’ intention to set up a committee to investigate “specific developments in the human resource culture [that] produced a state of deep governance concern and anxiety within the community”.

Asked to clarify whether the council was specifically informed that the committee would investigate the renewal of Beckles’ contract, the university redirected our newsroom to its unclear statement that triggered the query.

Precisely what the council and its chancellor-chairman knew in July are crucial, given the chancellor’s response to the committee’s request.

The questions to the chancellor sought clarity on any deviation from established protocols; whether Bermudez took advice from any regional government; and whether he held a meeting with Beckles, who, it appears, is to retire after three years on the renewed contract.

According to internal UWI documents, the sole task of Beckles’ committee, based on its terms of reference, was to “enquire into, make findings, report on and make recommendations” on the issues arising from the circumstances under which the vice chancellor’s contract was renewed.

Commenting on the controversies that have clouded the university, including the refusal of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago to support his extension last year, Beckles this month said that he is focused on building a stronger institution.

“While I am a historian, I have no time at this moment for historical reflection. We have a university to lead and we are taking it where it must be and that is where my mind is occupied at the moment,” he said earlier this month at the council meeting for the Trinidad-based St Augustine campus.

In early March, the University Council “broadly accepted” 92 of the 95 recommendations in the 2020 governance report, rejecting contentious proposals that would have seen a 100 per cent increase in students’ fees and executive powers going to the chancellor.

jovan.johnson@gleanerjm.com