The Government monthly subvention for the University of T&T (UTT) was delivered late and fell short of over $6 million in October. November’s subvention is yet to be received.
This was the explanation given to UTT staff yesterday by its president Professor Sarim Al-Zubaidy as to why staff was not paid yesterday.
In a memo sent out on Thursday, staff was told that they would be paid on November 29. The reason given was because of the current financial situation.
Staffers and unionised members protested the late pay during at the O’Meara Campus in Arima expressing their disgust and disappointment.
In response, Al-Zubaidy said that UTT usually received a monthly subvention of $16.7 million, however, for the month of October they only got $10 million.
“This was received in November. As you would imagine, this figure has caused the university much concern as payroll accounts for over 70 per cent of our overall money spend,” Al-Zubaidy said.
“The situation for November is made even more serious when one considers that we have not yet received our monthly subvention from the Government and we have been informed that this will also be TT$10 million,” he added.
Al-Zubaidy said he was unhappy to see staff upset and inconvenienced but added that November’s late disbursement could have in no way be avoided.
He said the UTT is working with speed to help alleviate the problem and asked for the patience of staff members in the interim.