HIGHER Education Minister Michael Ogio has expressed confidence at the management of the University of Technology in Lae, and described media reports of financial and staffing problems there as “untrue” and “misleading”.
He added that most of the issues raised by concerned staff and students were administrative in nature and “these have been adequately addressed by the university’s council and management”.
Mr Ogio said a number of consultations and dialogues had occurred between the Unitech council and administration and the Office of Higher Education (OHE) to look at ways forward in resolving some of the major issues which were attributed to inadequate funding not only at Unitech but also in other State universities.
Mr Ogio said the council and the administration had attended to the staffing issues in terms of recruitment and appointment of new staff in preparation for the commencement of the 2008 academic year.
He said the Mining Engineering School would not be close as reported recently by various media bodies.
He said the cash flow problems faced by Unitech were outside of the university’s council and administration control, and were caused by delays by Waigani in not transferring Unitech’s grants on a timely basis, causing accumulation of debts with major clients and creditors alike.