All institutions have rules about the leaking of confidential internal information and the University of the South Pacific is no exception. So that when Dr Tamara Osborne – a USP lecturer and President of the Association of USP Staff – went on the record in an Islands Business article back in March with internal deliberations to which she had been party, she must have known she was exposing herself to disciplinary action. Sure enough, she has been sacked, triggering a fresh wave of unrest at the region’s pre-eminent institute of high learning.
The sacking is being portrayed by the USP unions as bullying, an attack on free speech and an assault on the union movement as a whole. That is self-serving nonsense. It is about the legitimate requirement for those in official positions who are party to official internal deliberations to keep those deliberations confidential. So the latest sabre-rattling by the USP unions protesting about Tamara Osborne’s dismissal is going nowhere. Grubsheet understands her termination by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Pal Ahluwalia, has been made on the advice of the USP’s lawyers and has the backing of the USP’s Pro-Chancellor, Professor Pat Walsh.
The wonder of it is that Tamara Osborne has been the instrument of her own demise. If you want to leak internal information about any organisation to the media, sensible people cover their tracks. You tell the journalist that it is “off the record” or “unattributed”, in other words, they can use it but don’t put your name to it. But Dr Osborne didn’t do this. She allowed the Islands Business journalist, Joe Yaya, to quote her. And it also says something about Islands Business that it didn’t take steps to protect its source. Because IB has hung Tamara Osborne out to dry.
Here’s the offending passage in the article “Where is the USP heading amid a gathering storm”?
Acting AUSPS president, Dr Tamara Osborne, was the Senate representative on last year’s joint committee that canvassed internal views on whether Ahluwalia’s contract should have been extended. She shared the Council’s workings when dealing with the committee’s report.
According to Osborne, the draft report was compiled in September last year. The final version was supposed to be ready one week before the Council met on November 27 and 28. She said the report was given to Council members on the last day of the meeting just before the Confidential session to discuss Ahluwalia’s contract.
She said some Council members asked to defer the matter to this year’s May Council, because they had not been given enough time. But based on the ordinance that contract extensions must be given six months before the contract ends, the approval to extend would have to be given by February, since Ahluwalia’s contract was expiring in August 2024.
Osborne said the Council was then presented with a one-page summary containing a recommendation from the JCCS to renew the contract. The recommendation was supported by three members of the JCCS – the representatives of Australia, New Zealand, and USP. Osborne’s was the only objection.
Without a unanimous decision of the committee, the Council went to vote via secret ballot. The results went Ahluwalia’s way – 13 against 10. Two countries did not vote while one was invalid. Twenty-six of the 30-member Council were present that day.
Only the USP unions are surprised that going to the media in this way in an official capacity, having been part of the internal deliberations, has brought Dr Osborne unstuck. They are fulminating long and loud in the media about her dismissal but it has been totally self-inflicted. Tamara Osborne is gone and there is nothing they can do about it except make a great deal of noise. And cause more instability at USP to add to the instability that Grubsheet reported back in May.
Can somebody please focus on the needs of the USP’s students for a change?
The full article from the March issue of Islands Business:
In February 2021, the University of the South Pacific (USP) was plunged into crisis when Vice Chancellor, Professor Pal Ahluwalia was unceremoniously thrown out of Fiji following a middle-of-the-night raid on his campus residence, accused by the then Fijian government of Voreqe Bainimarama of breaching the country’s immigration laws.
Within months of taking up the job in 2019, a bombshell report by Ahluwalia had alleged widespread financial mismanagement within the university under former administrations. It triggered an independent investigation by New Zealand-based accounting firm, BDO and Ahluwalia’s eventual expulsion from Fiji.
Three years later, USP finds itself beset by a host of new problems, most prominent among them an overwhelming vote this month by staff across Fiji (97% of academic staff and 94% of administration and support personnel) to go on strike over pay issues. The pay demands headline other contentions such as the number of unfilled vacancies and the strain that the unions say it’s causing staff, concerns about the diminishing presence of Pacific Island academics at what is a regional institution, as well as the absence of female academics, and questions over the way some key contracts have been handled by management. Some of these concerns are shared by key members of the USP Council and its Senior Management Team. Leadership emerged as a major point of discussion in interviews conducted by Islands Business. Ahluwalia does retain firm support from some Council members, and USP’s student association.
USP itself has refused to respond to questions from Islands Business. Over a seven-week period beginning January 22, we made several efforts to reach Vice Chancellor Ahluwalia. In mid-February, his office said he would not be able to provide an interview while at Laucala Campus “because of his busy schedule” (they specified “engagements with stakeholders nd other university-related activities”).
On March 6, after another follow-up request for an interview, Ahluwalia responded with the following email:
“Many of the questions that you ask in relation to staff are being discussed with the respective unions and it is inappropriate for me to make comments through the media. Most of your other questions relate directly to matters that are the business of our Council and its deliberations are confidential so it is inappropriate too for me to discuss these matters outside of Council.”
We also sought a response from Professor Pat Walsh, Acting Pro-Chancellor of USP, and Chair of the Council. Walsh is the New Zealand government’s representative on the Council. He did not respond.
In the absence of responses from USP, we sought comparative insight by speaking to senior regional academic figures such as Fiji National University pioneering Vice Chancellor and long-time academic, Dr Ganesh Chand; newly appointed Vice Chancellor of the Solomon Islands National University, Professor Transform Aqorau (who is a renowned regional academic and fisheries expert); and Dr Hilda Heine, who was Pro-Chancellor and Chair of the USP Council from January 2022 until December 2023, and resigned after winning back the Presidency of the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
Islands Business delves into these issues in this special report by Fiji correspondent, Joe Yaya, edited by Richard Naidu.
Framed in irony
If irony is central to storytelling, then the University of the South Pacific saga is perfectly framed. The same staff unions that rallied in support of Vice Chancellor Pal Ahluwalia after his deportation from Fiji in 2021, are now demanding his removal.
‘Pal to go!’ a placard read, as staff gathered outside the University’s Japan Pacific ICT Theatre on November 27 last year, voicing their demands for a pay rise and a new Vice Chancellor, as the USP Council met.
A Council meeting in May last year had directed Ahluwalia to discuss the matters with USP’s two unions – the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union – and bring the outcomes to the Council’s November sitting.
But, according to Administration and Support Staff Union president, Reuben Colata, Ahluwalia never called for any discussions with them, and when the unions tried to present the issue again in November, the Council did not allow the item onto the agenda.
The unions said the University had refused to negotiate their demands for backdated pay, and to address the extra workload on staff carrying the large number (455 in 2023) of vacant positions the University has failed to fill. They claim USP has saved around FJ$14.8m in not paying salaries for those vacant positions.
They say current salary levels are not enough to counter the annual 3% inflation rate, the increase of Value Added Tax in Fiji from 9% to 15%, and the 20% upsurge in compulsory medical insurance premiums this year.
After this month’s secret ballot in favour of industrial action, the unions offered management “one more chance to come to the table” before going ahead with a strike. Management had one week to engage in discussions and 21 days to reach an agreement.
COVID deal
The unions, according to Colata, had a deal with Ahluwalia that staff would forgo salary adjustments and 10 days of leave for the 2019-2021 triennium, to cushion the impact of the COVID-19 downturn. The arrangement was to be revisited when things normalised, Colata told Islands Business.
“The last time we got salary adjustments was in 2018. The amount was 5% paid in December and backdated to January. This time we are seeking another 5% increase, backdated to 2019,” Colata said.
The academic and professional staff (represented by AUSPS) want a 3% increase, also backdated to 2019. Personnel in this category include the VC and the Senior Management Team (SMT). They received salary increases in 2018, but according to Colata, their payment was made in July that year and backdated to the start of that triennium in January 2016.
“In that payout, some staff got a 5% increase, some got 7%, and some 12%.”
USP has already paid out a 4% wage rise to staff in the current triennium (2% in October 2022 and 2% in January 2023), with another 2% approved for January 2024.
But the unions say the 6% was approved without any consultation with them.
AUSPS general secretary, Rosalia Fatiaki told Islands Business the backdated salary adjustments that the unions are demanding will cost the University around FJ$13.8m (FJ$7.2m for academics and $6.6m for administration and support staff).
Colata said the claims the unions are making is valid because “USP is making a surplus every year, and there is money in the reserves. Staff are overworked and the vacancies are not filled. People are taking on extra responsibilities without reward.
“Leadership is the problem.”
Finances and student numbers
USP’s annual reports show it has been making an operating surplus – FJ$9.42m in 2017 to FJ$31.06m in 2020, dropping to FJ$11.09m in 2021 to FJ$4.04m in 2022, and forecast to bounce back to FJ$11.38m in 2024.
Cash reserves also increased from FJ$65.3m in 2017, surpassing the FJ$100m mark in 2022 (FJ$110.3m), and are expected to total FJ$118.3m in 2024.
The previous FijiFirst government’s freeze on Fiji’s annual grant contributions to USP in 2019 in the battle with Ahluwalia was lifted by Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, with the first tranche of FJ$10m to USP released last February, along with the removal of the ban against the Vice Chancellor returning to Fiji.
Fiji’s Finance Minister, Professor Biman Prasad told Islands usiness another FJ$20m will be paid by July end, and “so progressively we want to clear the rest of the amount owing (FJ$106.2m).”
Prasad said they had also recommenced the regular yearly grant of FJ$30m to USP, in addition to scholarship funding for Fiji students studying at USP.
While USP’s financial situation may be improving, concern surrounds the decline in student enrolments – down 30% in the last three years (by almost 5,000 students), according to the University’s 2024 Annual Plan.
In response to our questions, Ahluwalia referred us to a press release on the outcomes of last November’s Council meeting, which quoted him as saying the University was “delivering its priorities successfully against the backdrop of declining enrolment numbers and financial constraints.”
Prasad told Islands Business that after the COVID-19-induced drop in numbers and students switching to online mode, recovery will take some time.
Former Pro-Chancellor and Chair of the USP Council, now President of the Republic of Marshall Islands, Dr Hilda Heine, said in an interview with Islands Business in her office in the Marshalls that COVID-19 created the same problems at USP that institutions in Australia, New Zealand and the United States were experiencing.
But, she noted that the drop in numbers was mainly because a large number of students from Fiji were not able to get scholarships.
“That impacted the student enrolment together with COVID, but the fact that USP continued to survive, regardless of the many issues it faced during the last three years, is a testament to the fact that it’s a strong institution that needs to be cared for and supported.”
Dr Ganesh Chand, a former USP academic, Vice Chancellor of the Fiji National University (FNU) and Solomon Islands National University, says the numbers may reflect a gap between what the University is teaching and what the industry and workplace expect.
Chand, who pioneered the setting up of vocational programs at FNU when he was appointed the first VC in 2010 and is now Chair of the Council of Pacific Polytech, said the responsibility to provide quality education lies with the tertiary institutions and the Higher Education Commission Fiji (HECF), which regulates the curriculum offered by universities in Fiji.
Chand says the role of the HECF is to ensure the curriculum meets industry standards before they accredit the tertiary institutions to teach the courses.
“For example, in accounting, the regulator is the Fiji Institute of Accountants and for lawyers it’s the Fiji Law Society. The trainer will only train by the regulating authority’s curriculum.”
Islands Business sent questions to Ahluwalia on whether USP had carried out any research or investigation into the enrolment gap, and whether there are internal checks in place to ensure the higher education programs they teach are meeting industry standards.
In a press release in November 2023, the Council said the decline in student numbers was the main cause of USP’s problems, and management’s plans to mitigate them were in the 2024 Annual Plan. Those plans included evaluation of courses to meet the needs of stakeholders, legal action against students owing unpaid fees, and collection of fee payments in advance from next year.
The Annual Plan says retention rates from 2016 to 2022 fell by 9% from 77% in 2016 to 67% in 2022.
“Completion rates show a more disturbing trend,” the document said, pointing to a drop from around 37% in 2015 to 18% in 2021.
In contrast, New Zealand Ministry of Education figures show the completion rate for their universities at 89% in 2020, dropping to 86% in 2022. The completion rate for Maori students in 2022 was around 75%, and for Pacific Islanders around 60%.
The drop in student enrolments is having a direct impact on collecting tuition fees. The 2024 Annual Plan states that income from tuition fees have decreased by 18% in the last three years and is projected to make up only 34% of total revenue this year.
In 2022, the losses in tuition income totaled FJ$11m (a 5% drop from 2021).
Meanwhile, FNU only recorded a 1% decline the same year, while tuition income as a proportion of its total revenue is at 44%.
Dr Ganesh Chand told Islands Business that revenue from tuition has never been sufficient to cover all the costs for any university in Fiji.
“That’s why the regional governments are required to pay a grant.”
But, Chand says, the grants come with an expectation from taxpayers who are footing the bill.
“All taxpayers want the operations of every institution where our money goes to be efficient. We want an efficient USP, we want an efficient FNU, and all the other entities.
“Efficiency means ensuring least cost for the activity undertaken, but when you try to increase efficiency, there will be grievances because people will be required to do more for the same salary they are being paid.”
Last year, the coalition government wiped off FJ$650m owed by 53,725 students and allocated a further FJ$148.3m to fund the 20,000 Fiji students currently studying at USP.
Error! Filename not specified.USP staff march at Laucala Campus on International Women’s Day.
Pacific talent/women in leadership
The USP Council meeting in May last year heard concerns that management had not delivered on plans announced in 2020 to increase the presence of Pacific academics and nurture women in leadership.
A Council member, who asked not to be named, told Islands Business that at present, there are no academic staff at professor or associate professor level working at USP in Fiji, who are from the region.
The Council member said in one instance, international reviewers had approved the recruitment of a Solomon Islander to take up an Associate Professor post at USP, but the recommendation had been overruled.
Union leaders have also expressed disappointment that the last remaining female professor at USP, Professor Elisabeth Holland, who was director of the Pacific Center for Environment and Sustainable Development, finished in December 2023 even though she was eligible for another year of employment.
“Holland held an important post for the region and when you remove someone at that level, you are not putting the institution first,” said former AUSPS president, Elizabeth Fong.
Holland was USP’s Professor of Climate Change from 2012-2023. According to her profile on the USP website, she has more than 30 years of climate change research experience and has served as an author in all six cycles of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), winning the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize as part of the IPCC.
The USP website describes her as an “advocate for the greater diversity and increased representation of women, Pacific Islanders, and underrepresented minorities in climate change, earth, ocean and ecosystem science and research communities.”
Islands Business’ questions to Ahluwalia, included whether concerns about the absence of support for Pacific academics and women leaders was an issue among academic staff.
On International Women’s Day earlier this month, members of USP’s unions held a march on Laucala Campus to protest the lack of women academics at USP, and the lack of female representation in the SMT (which currently has only one female), according to AUSPS general secretary, Rosalia Fatiaki.
“As a starting point, the union would like to see at least 30% females in the SMT and increase to 50% over time,” Fatiaki said.
Holland reacted to posts of the march on social media, commenting that the number of women academics at USP is declining and having no women in the SMT or among professors was “outrageous”.
“Both Fiji National University and National University of Samoa are led by capable women Vice Chancellors,” she said.
“The number of remarkable Pacific Island women working at and leading other CROP agencies (Council of Regional Organisations of the Pacific) is impressive. FFA (Forum Fisheries Agency) is led by the remarkable Manu Tupou-Roosen.
“Time to grow up boys!” she posted.
Holland declined Islands Business’ request for her comments regarding her contract.
Away from Suva
Ahluwalia has worked from Samoa since August 2021, after a brief stint in Nauru.
According to Fong, the unions wrote to the Council in May 2023 asking for Ahluwalia to be brought back to Suva. But the Council did not make a decision. Fong said they were later informed by the acting Pro-Chancellor, Pat Walsh that the VC could not return to Suva because his contract did not allow it.
Fong said after USP hosted a welcome ceremony for Ahluwalia and Price in February last year, staff expected him to return to Fiji, but he did not, and instead returned to Samoa.
“This is where we feel a little hard done by Ahluwalia because he never told us the truth.”
Union leaders have also expressed concern about the cost of Ahluwalia working out of Samoa.
“When he travels to Suva, he collects a daily per diem of FJ$615. If he stays for a week, he collects more than $4,000. That’s not including the airfares which USP also has to pay,” Fong said.
Islands Business sent questions to Ahluwalia for his response to these claims.
Regional concerns
Solomon Islands National University Vice Chancellor and leading regional academic, Professor Transform Aqorau raised eyebrows when, during an address at the Fiji National University’s Nasinu Campus, he spoke out about the state of USP.
“It is disheartening to see [USP] being torn apart by those whose interests do not align with serving the peoples of the Pacific Islands but rather advancing their own agendas, thereby threatening the future of our thought leaders. I challenge us to consider who among us will … reclaim our regional university and restore its rightful place in the Pacific.”
Speaking to Islands Business afterwards, Professor Aqorau said he and Ahluwalia were on the same flight from Adelaide to Nadi, when Ahluwalia first travelled to Fiji in 2018 to take up his new post at USP.
Aqorau said in their conversation, he told Ahluwalia that he needed to turn USP into a center of excellence for the Pacific.
“I encouraged him not to look back at what’s happened at USP but to work with the mindset of taking USP forward. But he has spent half of his energy trying to fix the past instead of trying to think about what the future of USP can be like.”
The problem at USP, he said, was “leadership, plain and simple.”
“A lot of academics from the region and Fiji are leaving USP because they feel they are not valued anymore. They are not happy with the environment they are working in.
“You can’t have a VC not living on the main campus, fair and simple. That must be sorted out first.”
Aqorau said the solution for USP’s problems is to get a new leader.
“Find a new VC who loves the Pacific, knows the Pacific, and has a heart for the institution.”
Commenting on the looming strike action, Tongan Prime Minister, Siaosi Sovaleni-Huakavameiliku said on X: “We are concerned especially since we have a lot of students studying at USP.”
Leadership
While the unions, observers such as Aqorau, and sections of senior management and the Council (albeit off-the-record) are critical of Ahluwalia’s actions on several fronts, a report by a Joint Committee of Council and Senate (JCCS) lays out an even-handed critique of Ahluwalia’s ‘strengths’, as well concerns about his leadership as part of an internal exercise to determine whether to extend his term for a further two years from August 2024 to August 2026. The exercise was required as part of USP policy.
Islands Business obtained a copy of the report, prepared by a subcommittee of the JCCS from face-to-face interviews and written responses from key stakeholders across USP governance, management, and operations on the basis
of confidentiality, given the “sensitive nature of the reappointment process and the need to ensure an enabling and “safe” space for open and frank conversation with stakeholders.”
The report said the extensive feedback on the VCP’s term at the University “highlights a leadership context of navigating complicated waters in unprecedented times.”
The report found his “ability to steer the University through crises, especially the COVID-19 pandemic, was a recurring theme. His resilience, flexibility, and prudent financial decisions — all without exhausting reserves or resorting to layoffs — were particularly acknowledged.”
On the other hand, the report said Ahluwalia’s leadership style “was identified as an area of critical concern.”
“While his crisis management skills were acknowledged, there was criticism around his approach, which was seen by many respondents as centralised, authoritarian, and reliant on personal loyalties. This approach created perceptions of divisiveness, with a lack of trust and a sense of disconnect felt among the staff. It appeared to contribute to a work environment where some staff felt disempowered or undervalued.”
The report said the VCP “currently faces a challenge in rebuilding trust, particularly with staff and staff unions. Addressing issues of perceived favouritism and ensuring fair recognition and development opportunities for staff are crucial. Staff welfare, including appropriate remuneration and opportunities for professional growth, was highlighted as an area needing attention.”
It also found “a clear indication of unrest and dissatisfaction among the University staff, stemming from several factors, including perceived unfairness in recruitment, promotions, inconsistency in policy application, and unaddressed human resource issues, including the failure to address issues of gender equality in staff recruitment and in leadership. These concerns, coupled with the sense of not being heard or valued, have affected staff morale and, potentially, staff retention. This signalled an unstable University environment that required urgent attention.”
The report also said that feedback highlighted Ahluwalia’s “prolonged absence” from Laucala Campus as “an area of real concern and creating much uncertainty across all areas of the VCP’s functions and responsibilities.
“Much of the uncertainty manifested in staff and students interpreting his decisions differently, coupled with what was being described as varying explanations on his decisions to management and to those close to him.
“There was acknowledgement that while his stay in Samoa amid the Fiji crisis was justified, the current situation required his regular presence at Laucala for effective leadership, especially since his anticipated return—following the revocation of his deportation order—was marked as the onset of a “new era” for the University.”
Students, on the other hand, “trust his leadership and express a desire to continue to support the VCP,” the report said.
“Student leadership confirms the VCP has demonstrated effective management of student concerns. He actively listens to their concerns and maintains open lines of communication. Students appreciate his honesty and realistic approach, particularly in acknowledging the University’s limitations in resolving certain issues.”
Outgoing student president, Lepani Naqarase, who was one of the two student representatives on the Council last year told Islands Business, the student body supports Ahluwalia because he places student welfare first and is the only VC in USP’s history who has truly served the region by working from different member countries despite the challenges. Incoming student vice-president, Salote Duaibe said the student body’s stance on Ahluwalia has not changed this year, despite the decline in student numbers and other crucial statistics.
“We are trying to improve upon it and we are going forward with what we have,” Duaibe said.
The committee compiled their findings in October in time for the November Council meeting where 13 members voted for and 10 against, extending Ahluwalia’s term till August 2026.
Politics
Former USP Pro-Chancellor and Chair, now Marshall Islands President Dr Hilda Heine says during her term with USP, one of the “strong challenges we faced was the issue with the Vice Chancellor.”
“He’s a strong figure that has a lot of supporters, as well as a lot of opposing parties. So, it was very difficult trying to navigate through that and create a semblance of stability, when you have so many different opinions about leadership,” said Heine.
“It’s very difficult the way the University is governed, because the big countries in the region have control of the University, regardless of what the smaller countries might think about leadership or this or that. They’re outnumbered by the big countries,” said Heine.
“As long as the governance is being controlled by a few countries and it’s not a level playing field for all the countries, it’s very difficult to overcome some of the political issues. Some of the politics influences how the University is run, unfortunately.
“One of the things we tried to do was change the composition of the Council, we tabled that and were going to come back to it, but it was obvious that the big countries don’t want to change the formula.
“Like any other big institution, there is a lot of politicking that goes on inside the University. As Chancellor, I tried to stay out of the politics but it’s not easy to remove yourself from it.”
– “As long as [USP’s] governance is being controlled by a few countries and it’s not a level playing field for all the countries, it’s very difficult to overcome some of the political issues. Some of the politics influences how the University is run, unfortunately.”
Fiji’s Finance Minister, Professor Biman Prasad told Islands Business, it was the previous FijiFirst government who “wanted to impose what they thought was right even though the Council wanted something else.”
“So as far as the coalition government is concerned, we don’t want to push the government’s agenda at the University.
“The Fiji government has five reps, we go there, we vote, or we propose. But if the region decided otherwise (referring to the vote on Ahluwalia’s contract extension), we have to accept that,” Prasad said.
Council workings
Acting AUSPS president, Dr Tamara Osborne, was the Senate representative on last year’s joint committee that canvassed internal views on whether Ahluwalia’s contract should have been extended. She shared the Council’s workings when dealing with the committee’s report.
According to Osborne, the draft report was compiled in September last year. The final version was supposed to be ready one week before the Council met on November 27 and 28. She said the report was given to Council members on the last day of the meeting just before the Confidential session to discuss Ahluwalia’s contract.
She said some Council members asked to defer the matter to this year’s May Council, because they had not been given enough time. But based on the ordinance that contract extensions must be given six months before the contract ends, the approval to extend would have to be given by February, since Ahluwalia’s contract was expiring in August 2024.
Osborne said the Council was then presented with a one-page summary containing a recommendation from the JCCS to renew the contract. The recommendation was supported by three members of the JCCS – the representatives of Australia, New Zealand, and USP. Osborne’s was the only objection.
Without a unanimous decision of the committee, the Council went to vote via secret ballot. The results went Ahluwalia’s way – 13 against 10. Two countries did not vote while one was invalid. Twenty-six of the 30-member Council were present that day.
This year’s Council meeting has been moved from May to April 26-27 when Ahluwalia’s extended work contract is expected to be finalised.
– Marshall Islands reporting by Nic Maclellan
Lorraine says
Of course the process to reappoint the USP Vice Chancellor was a fix and Professor Osborne had a moral duty to reveal the truth and explanation her objection to the reappointment. Am just surprised that Australia and New Zealand went along with the decision when the process was clearly flawed. AUSPS should take Profesdor Ahluwallia to task for bullying and abuse of power. The good lady Professor should be reinstated.
Neel says
So how was the process flawed? What about keeping the deliberations at the meeting confidential. Leaking of meeting minutes or deliberations is a sackable offence in any organisation. One person does not make the decision. The other council members and majority have agreed to extend Pals contract. That is what democracy is all about. This is a racist witch hunt to remove Pal and nothing else.
Samu Dodonu says
For someone that laments long and hard about injustice and cover ups that hide due process, you seem to have the shoe on the other foot in this regard.
There is no political influence here. Tamara Osbourne has a trait for telling the truth and if we are sidelining the truth for decorum, than God help us all.
We are setting a very dangerous precedence by not standing up to this. May more people be like Tamara Osbourne, unshackled by norms and the heinous frameworks that allow injustice and corruption to be prolific in our institutions.
Graham Davis says
I am supporting due process. Tamara Osborne was shackled by her obligation as an insider not breach confidentiality. She chose to put her name to the Islands Business story and expose her failure to do so and them’s the breaks.
I repeat. Could we have more emphasis on the students of USP rather than this perpetual disruption by the staff? It has nothing to do with “exposing corruption and injustice”. There are already mechanisms for that and you know it.
Senile ‘journalist’ says
Not only is PAL running circles around the USP council, he has also duped you as well, GrubSheet, judging from your superficial post. So much for you investigating journalism skills and acumen. Never thought you’d be fooled by anyone but in Pal you have met your match. He has rendered you no better than the senile USP council. As they say, opinions are like arseholes. Everyone has one. For you the message is to get of your arse and do some real digging – the truth will set you free from PAL’s clutches. I can’t understand why he has such a hold one you.
Graham Davis says
Pal Ahluwalia doesn’t “have a hold on me”. Crikey. It is only the unions at USP who don’t understand the issue of corporate confidentiality. It exists in every organisation in the world. And I have yet to see a complaint against the VC that comes close to meeting the test of corruption and all the other accusations that are levelled at him.
If he was so awful, why does he continue to have the confidence of the USP Council? If what you say is true, he would have been sent packing ages ago. I would be the first to pounce on an issue of genuine wrongdoing. But sacking someone trusted with inside information for blabbing to the media hardly constitutes that. Get a grip.
I will have a lot more to say about USP in the coming days, having become aware of fresh information that demonstrates astonishing irresponsibility and is likely to cost a lot of staff their jobs. Guess you’ll say that is manufactured too. Sadly not.
Only me says
How on earth did she become a lecturer and obtained a doctorate. And the name says it all. If it had been a Sharma or Pryde no one would have let out a squeak.
Dejected says
On the contrary, her name has nothing to do with her appointment. She’s earned her PhD, has been a consistent and determined, respectful staff member about who, very few (if any) would have a bad word to say. In this instance, she made an error and the consequences were dire for her career. I do feel sorry for her, but have no doubt she’ll spring onto something very soon. She’s highly respected in her field. Yes I know her professionally.
And on names, “Naikatini” is an equally respected name at USP too.
Rajiv Sharma says
Island Business forgot the basics of journalism reporting and protecting your sources. Perhaps a refresher journalism 101 needed.
Aus and NZ - why? says
The recommendation was supported by three members of the JCCS – the representatives of Australia, New Zealand, and USP.
Since when did Australia and New Zealand start having a voice around these tables and why? They are not part of USP, or are they now and why? I understand that they are donors but didn’t realise they have such power.
Graham Davis says
Seriously? Australia and NZ have been there from day one and provide the most money. He who pays the piper calls the tune. Get used to it.
As I have said before, beggar nations surrender their sovereignty and the same applies to USP. And Australia and NZ have a duty to their own taxpayers to ensure proper standards of governance at the University.
Shimran says
Fiji provides the most money to USP by far, not Australia or NZ
Graham Davis says
Are you joking? It is more than $80-million in arrears. You have been drinking the Kool Aid.
Neel says
There is no thing such as a free lunch. Donor funding always comes with strings attached. People like you forget USP is a regional university not a national university controlled by Fiji.
Neel says
This is nothing but a racist push from the USP staff unions to push the brown falla out since he is of Indian origin and have him replaced by a Pacific Islander not necessarily the most qualified person. They used Pal in their fight against the FFP led government of Frank and Khaiyum. Now they want to dispense with Pal. USP does have racism at play. No one can say otherwise.
Elizabeth Reade Fong says
The process by the Joint Committee of the USP Senate and Council was flawed because the full Committee failed to be party to the final decision. Only 4 of the 8 members made the decision. Of the 4, three are Pal’s known supporters. Dr Naikatini-Osborne’s vote reflected the Staff stand on Pal’s performance as a leader of a regional institution.
As the President of AUSPS to December 2023 I was fully aware of Pal’s failure to make and act on issues that were raised at the Staff Policy Commiittee meetings and Union Meetings with the Senior Management Team (SMT) that after 2 years resulted in the Log of Claims to the Umiversity and subsequently to the Ministry that led to the strike vote and approval by the Ministry of Employment. The Unions demand for pay increase was based on the RBF inflation rate for the period 2029-2023; it took into account the ‘bad faith’ salary decisions by Pal and asked for 11% for academic and professional staff. The payment of this back pay was from salary savings of $14m from 400 vacant posts as reported to Senate by Pal. I reiterate, savings from vacant positions that Staff carried the load for. Money was in the kitty.
Dr Osborne- Naikatini’s comments to IB were those of a whistleblower who had no other recourse for a flawed process given that it was headed by the Acting Chair of Council from NZ who voted in Pal’s favor.
This is not an internal matter but a regional matter for the 12 Gocernments that own USP. Furthermore the decision was rushed through Council with members receivng the paper 20 minutes before voting. One country objected and recommended it be deferrred due to its seriousness but the Acting PC who chaired the JCCS and voted for Pal, declined this on a disputable administrative ground.
Dr Osborne-Naikatini stands for good governance and current and former staff who have seen Pal’s true colours stand with her. Her departure impacts regional students but she will return. Rest assured.
Graham Davis says
That won’t be happening, Elizabeth, at least if the law is followed. I understand that the issue of confidentiality is clear-cut. And it is precisely because there are 12 regional governments involved that the notion of the citizen of one of them taking it upon herself to play whistleblower when she is part of the official process isn’t going to fly. You know USP’s lawyers. Ask them.
You had already left USP. Why couldn’t you have been the whistleblower if this was so important? Like Islands Business, you and your former colleagues have hung Tamara Osborne out to dry.
Elizabeth Reade Fong says
Graham, I respected that Tamara was the Senate and Staff Representative to the Review Commiittee. I as Union President was not going to undermine her integrity by speaking on a matter I was not party to directly. Tamara had the evidence and did not agree with what she witnessed and being the ethical, educated and strong woman she is, was prepared to put the truth in the public arena. She did not need anyone else to do this for her and IB served a purpose in exposing this. Is this not what journalists should do? It is what you are doing – yes?
That Pal did not want the internal manipulation/truth declared is the basis of his action to date. She had no recourse internally.
You must be aware that Pal made the final decision to terminate Tamara after giving her two days to respond. Did he see this as a fair regulation? He used it to his advantage to bully her into fear of losing her job.
Knowing the HR Director and COO who had to convey Pals decision, I believe that neither would have wanted USP back in the limelight for the wrong reasons relating to manipulation and poor governance but as Pal has final say, the decision would have been a directed, one regardless of their advice. This raises the matter of a Conflict of Interest. Pal’s contract process is the centre of the issue at hand and he made the final decision and you don’t see anything wrong with this? You have raised such contradictions in the past, and why do you see it here?
I was on the USPSA Federal Committee and attended their regional meetings in Suva (2022), Samoa (Nov 2022) Tonga (june 2023) and Nadi (Dec 2023) and I witnessed Pal’s courting of certain leaders with dinner and trips to get them on his side. That he sat in through the discussions outside of his agenda time placed some leaders in a difficult position with transparent responses to queries raised in relation to voting on Pal’s contract. When I raised concerns in December, I with two others, were promptly dispensed of our services by USPSA SG and the former DSG who became staff with one foot still in the Federal association on a project.
Interestingly, the IB reported the last PCs comments about difficulties between Pal and staff and students. Read between the lines and conclude how her country might have voted on Pal’s renewal!
I stand with Tamara for having the strength of character to show the cracks in USP’s governance at the highest Management level under Pal.
Graham Davis says
Rubbish, Elizabeth. You and Islands Business have thrown her under a bus. Why aren’t you getting the local mainstream media to cover all of this? Why is it my responsibility to go beyond merely establishing that what is in the mainstream media is grounded in fact? And to establish conclusively that if anyone leaks confidential information to the media with their name attached to it at USP or anywhere else, it is axiomatic that the axe will fall as surely as night follows day.
I am not Pal Ahluwalia’s PR person. There are people employed at USP to do that. But it doesn’t take a genius to find out what is going on there. The place leaks like a sieve. Tamara Osborne has paid the price for the collective naivety of your clique. You have failed in your attempt to remove the VC and have hung her out to dry. And if you think you can win this one in the court of public opinion, good luck. You needed to have a just cause for that to happen. And from where I sit, it is self serving nonsense.
Doubtless you can persuade elements of the mainstream media to back you. But is there really going to be a strike at USP over Tamara Osborne? The staff unions have got their money now (more on this shortly) so if I was wearing my PR hat, I’d be advising the lot of you to take your money and run. Because as I said from the outset, the law is the law and this ain’t gonna fly in the courts of law or the court of public opinion.
Just my humble opinion, for what it’s worth.
Vulagi Wawale says
The fact is GD, whether you know it or not, you have been courted as Pal Ahluwalia’s PR stooge. If it is not him feeding you your one-sided info directly, it is one of his minions. You are on the wrong side of history and there is a lot that will come to light when he is gone. For what it’s worth.
Graham Davis says
Listen up. I am nobody’s fool. I tell it as I see it and it is as plain as the nose on your face that Tamara Osborne had no legal justification whatsoever as an insider to reveal confidential information to Islands Business. And she is paying the price for that breach.
Stand by for more revelations that you will doubtless cast as “Pal’s PR” but are also grounded in fact. And again. Can we please have less navel gazing by USP staff and more emphasis on the quality of their teaching of USP students?
I gather student numbers are falling as more and more of them look to education opportunities in Australia and NZ. And who can blame them when their educations are being so disrupted by the fat cats at USP. And I will soon be reporting just how fat those cats have become – a secret pay deal that remains unreported in the Fijian mainstream media.
Coming soon.
Anonymous says
I’m ex-staff so have no stake in it, am just saying what I saw first-hand (rather than what PR I’ve been fed by Pal’s minions).
Interview the heads of faculty and you’ll find that the single most important reason that quality is suffering is that Pal stalls on hiring staff needed to replace the many who have migrated, while flying himself and his and minions round the world on junkets.
My comment is not necessarily about Tamara, maybe you’re right about the technicality of her dismissal. It’s about the fact that your frequent “explosive” stories about USP come straight from Pal and have one thing in common: they paint the VC as the victimised saviour, and everyone else as bad actors. Which is not good reporting any way you look at it.
But then you have a thing for victimised saviours, don’t you. So long as they are not indigenous.
Graham Davis says
This is nonsense. It was fine with the critics for me to support Pal Ahluwalia when he was under attack from Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum. I was the darling of these malcontents. Yet as soon as I opposed their pay rise, I became the devil incarnate. More on this on the weekend.
The USP is a regional organisation of 12 nations, not one, as these people seem to think. And while Pal Ahluwalia has the support of the USP Council, I am not going to join this preposterous witch-hunt.
USP staff have now got the money they were demanding. They have succeeded in their demand for Pal Ahluwalia to return to the Laucala Campus ( evidently he will be back next month). What is wrong with me opining that under those circumstances, it is time for the staff to stop agitating and start doing their jobs?
Now they want Tamara Osborne reinstated when she breached confidentiality and the VC and Pro Chancellor decided that it was a sackable offence. I see Jone Usamate (is he from the opposition still? ) joining in the clamour for her to be given back her job? But why is it that the rules in any other organisation don’t apply at USP?
It isn’t about me being biased in favour of Pal Ahluwalia as a individual but that I can’t see there are grounds for his removal while the University Council continues to have confidence in him. When it doesn’t, ask me again. But the students and parents have had enough of this constant standoff and posturing.
I suspect that one thing is true. These people want a VC from the Pacific and preferably Fiji. But if they get one, will this person be any better? The Tongan Prime Minister’s brother? Seriously?
This notion that I am anti-indigenous is ridiculous. I am pro the best person getting any job. And right now, the USP Council’s position is that Pal Ahluwalia is still the best person for the job or he would be gone.
I examine each of these successive flare-ups at USP on its merits and give an opinion that you can take or leave. But I repeat. I am supporting stability and good governance, not playing politics or personalities.
Anonymous says
I don’t think you’re anti-Indigenous, I think you’re pro-Vulagi Saviour. (Thank your dad for that one.)
Your readers don’t come to you for your ethical standing, which you forfeited many moons ago.
We come because the Fijian media is pathetic. So we take advantage of a hobbyist with an unhealthy Fiji obsession who – to your credit – is unafraid to ruffle feathers by printing gossip and news that the local media won’t touch.
You have made your biggest mark on Fiji as a spin doctor. I am willing to believe that in the case of Pal Ahluwalia you actually believe what you are writing this time around. But in that case, doc, you are the one who is being spun.
To my former colleagues at USP, whatever your race, stay strong. Saviours come a dime a dozen and they are soon forgotten.
Graham Davis says
Nice. Yes, let’s bring up my dead father, whose generation at least understood right from wrong.
“Pro-vulagi saviour”? You’ve just betrayed your racist agenda.
I don’t care whether you read my stuff or not. It is totally irrelevant to me. When I write, I don’t think of a self entitled elite but the mass of ordinary people being f***ed over by you and your kai vata.
And you have the audacity to lecture me about ethics?
PAL’s pall says
“It was fine with the critics for me to support Pal Ahluwalia when he was under attack from Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum. I was the darling of these malcontents. Yet as soon as I opposed their pay rise, I became the devil incarnate. More on this on the weekend.”
Don’t be silly, Graham. Enough self aggrandizing. You are beginning to sound like Pal. He’s rubbing off on you without you even knowing it! We all stood up for Pal when his human and employment rights were breached. Right now it’s about his performance as a leader and CEO, which is appalling. 90% of the staff are against him. And it’s not just about staff pay. He is just not fit for the job, full stop, Do not conflate his human rights with his job performance.
Elizabeth Reade Fong says
Graham, you know
that we (staff) supported Pal under worker’s rights and justice when FF wanted him gone.
We fought to give him the opportunity to prove himself as a leader. We found him wanting and did what we had to do. I was on the inside and have first hand information on his failures that ‘need improvement’ (at salary 600k?) as alledgedly stated in the Review.
We, the staff and student leaders recognized that Pal was not what we had hoped for or thought he was by his leadership actions and took this through process that led to MOL action and others via Council (May 2023).
As writers have said, your information source is clearly Pal and it makes you look like his PR and regardless of what you say Graham, that is a perception.
Pal speaks of a confidentiality breach by Tamara. So are wrongs to be covered up under confidentiality? Not by my standards. Expose them whichever way one can. That is accountability and transparency when internal processes don’t allow it or are prevented by leaders. Your column arose from similar circumstances.
I’m sharing so all your readers can form a more balanced opinion of this issue aside from yours and Pal’s!
Elizabeth
Graham Davis says
Elizabeth, it was not just the VC’s opinion that Tamara Osborne should go. The decision was endorsed by the Pro-Chancellor and USP’s lawyers. And that is FACT. And I repeat: if a whistle blower was needed, why wasn’t it you? Someone who had already left USP and who couldn’t be sacked for speaking out? Instead, Dr Osborne has become the sacrificial lamb when anyone sensible could have told you what would happen to her if she put her name to her statements to Islands Business.
You can try to smear me as much as you like but I’m not going to support the unsupportable. Get ready for a real pounding on the weekend on the issue of pay. Not because I am Pal’s PR man but because you all deserve it. The pounding, not the pay rise.
Self-entitled fat cats trying to railroad your own wishes through a Council that represents all 12 nations, not just Fiji. When you get enough of them onside, let me know. But no-one gives a damn what the unions think when they are patently not acting in the national interest or the interests of USP students.
And here’s another tip. If you don’t like what I write, don’t read it. I’m just not that important for you to get so upset.
BTW, on the issue of the VC’s pay, he is coming cheap by Aussie standards. And his $F600,000 ($AU 400,000) a year doesn’t reflect the $40-million he has raised for USP since Covid over and above national contributions from the member states.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-uni-rich-list-vice-chancellors-on-1-million-salaries-revealed-20240621-p5jnn6.html
Dejected says
“ So are wrongs to be covered up under confidentiality? Not by my standards. Expose them whichever way one can.”
I’d hate to have you as a colleague, Elizabeth. Enjoy your retirement, and presiding in your own court.
Of Old fools says
Graham, how come you cannot see the biggest fat cat of them all, lol? His right under your nose. That fat cat is not worth the 600k he’s paid. Not only has he not done anything positive for USP, he has ruined the place. 40m in the kitty is rubbish compared to all the damage to USP. The 40m should have been put to use for USP staff and student development, and infrastructure upgrade, not bandied as a badge of honor to get Pal another contact. He has nothing to show except 40m which represents the USP staff and students blood, sweat, tears and deprivation by PAL. I never thought I’d say this but you are truly an old fool, Graham.
Graham Davis says
You’re the fool and your age doesn’t come into it. Don’t take my word for it. Just reread the nonsense you have posted here.
Anonymous2 says
USP has a Media Relations Policy (Policy Number: 1.6.4.02) which establishes rules that are discussed here. Under section 8 of this policy it says (and I quote):
“8. Exclusions
8.1 The independent USP Students Association and the USP Staff union are independent bodies and are not subject to this Policy”.
Dr Osborne did not make the statements as USP staff but as representative of an independent body.
Graham Davis says
What’s a “media relations policy” got to do with the requirement to keep confidential deliberations to which she is party confidential? You seem not to have the first idea about the rules of corporate governance.
Anonymous3 says
Corporate governance is the system by which private companies (Corporations) are directed and controlled (corporation: “a large company or group of companies authorized to act as a single entity and recognized as such in law”.
USP is not a private company. USP is paid from my taxes as well as the taxes of thousands of other people. This gives the right to know what is going on when leading positions are filled. There were no details revealed, just rather general information that revealed that several principles that USP has in its regulations were not followed. A Union does not only have the right to take up such matter, but it has the duty to do so.
You cannot compare USP with a private company (corporate governance) where the public does not contribute any financial input, where the bosses can apply whatever rule they see fit.
According to the Standing Orders of USP Council there needs to be minutes of each Council meeting. It says (and I quote): „Confirmed Council minutes, excluding those relating to the confidential business of the meeting, will be posted on the USP website within 5 days of their confirmation by the Council“. These minutes must be open to the public (posted on USP website).
In the Standing Orders of Council it says that the minutes should contain: “A summary of the business conducted at the meeting with a brief record for each agenda item”. Look yourself. You won’t find any minutes of any Council meeting. USP is just not following what the Standing Orders of USP Council instructs.
What one can get is a (belated) report on the decisions a Council meeting made but in an extremely basic, insufficient way. One can read e.g. “The Council resolved to note the report on the work to date of the Executive Committee” or “The Council resolved to note the report from the Finance and Resources Committee on the work to date of the Committee” or “The Council resolved to adopt the Audited Financial Statements for the year ending 31 December 2022” and so forth. One would not find anything that even gives an idea what a report / statement etc was about nor what was discussed.
The Standing Orders require for each motion that is carried (and I quote)
„(i) A brief statement of the reasons for the motion
(ii) The motion wording as carried
(iii) The voting indicating either it was by consensus, or where voting has occurred, a statement that it was carried without dissent, or the votes for and against the motion
(iv) A record of any requests by members that their vote be separately recorded“
The Standing Orders also say about the required contents of the minutes: “The names of Council members attending, the names of USP officials and staff attending and those attending by invitation”.
All these are issues where USP has an obligation to make public its Council Proceedings in a way that the interested public can learn of what was happening in a particular Council meeting. This is not done. There is absolutely no transparency.
What the Union President did was not to reveal small details about a part of a meeting but to communicate what the tax paying public has a right to know. What I could read was much more than the USP Council usually communicates to the public, but certainly nothing that violated individual persons rights. If one is a public figure then it is part of the job to be exposed to public scrutiny. Here restrictions are set by the Fiji Constitution, where the freedom of expression is restricted to avoid hate speech and other inappropriate reporting to the public. I cannot see that such has happened in the case of the Union President.
KS says says
I see a lot of pro-Staff Union and Against-Pal posts here as well as many who accused GD of siding with Pal and in their pursuit missed the real legal issue.
The real issue is the breach of confidentiality by the Staff Union that led to the summary dismissal of Dr Osborne. On the other hand, the Staff Union thought it prudent to expose Pal in any form they deemed fit as long as Pal was exposed. This is where the staff union mucked it up.
Dr Osborne is first an employee of USP and second a Staff Union Executive. An employee’s primary role is to protect the organisation’s secret enshrined in the confidentiality policy that everyone signs to uphold this policy.
As soon as an employee breaches confidentiality policy, Management can use Section 33 of ERA 2007 to their advantage and this is exactly what they did to Dr Osborne.
Dr Osborne as an employee of USP leaked confidential meeting records to the Media that she was not supposed to.
Now wearing the hat of Staff Union, Dr Osborne could have asked the staff Union president or secretary or whoever was not an employee of the Union to leak these minutes regarding Pal, Dr Osborne would have saved her job.
Even if the staff union members who are current employees of USP want to raise Pal’s wrongdoings, manipulations, etc there are procedures and processes that need to be followed but not to go directly to the media. They need to understand that first they are an employee of USP and second the Union Executive and the representative of the staff members.
Again, a whistleblower blows the whistle to the USP council and not to the media. This is wrong per se.
Note I am not a union representative, not an associate of Pal and not employed by USP or Grubsheet. I am an expert in Human Resources and Law and I tried my best to explain simply.
Graham Davis says
Thank you. You have identified the issues perfectly.