UG community changed design on how aspects of World Bank loan should be used- HPS

The decision on how the component of the World Bank loan that addresses the University of Guyana UG) and its facilities, is not one that is made by neither the institution nor any of its officials Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon said at his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at the Office of the President.
He was at the time responding to a question as to when the mechanisms will be put in place to facilitate UG accessing the World Bank loan.
Last month, UG’s Vice Chancellor Professor Lawrence Carrington in his address to staff members said that the loan to the Guyana Government has not yet been activated because the Finance Minister is still to sign a crucial loan document.
The HPS said that he had personally invited Professor Carrington to be involved in a body which included Dr. Paulette Bynoe from the School of Environmental and Earth Sciences and others, to devise a structure on how best the funds could be used.
He explained that what actually happened since, is that the University community revised and changed that design to utilise the $8.4M to support various aspects of the institution’s recapitalisation.
“I am not aware that those specific elements await the Minister of Finance or any subordinate approval,” he said.
The World Bank loan is aimed at certain broad areas, such as the rehabilitation and refurbishment of the Science and Technology Laboratory facilities in four of the university’s faculties at Turkeyen; the review and reform of UG’s Science curriculum; and support for research towards low-carbon themes.