Special Committee of USP Council yet to finalize names of Commission

The subcommittee of the USP Council is yet to finalize the names of the Commission which will oversee the necessary reforms.

The responsibility of the committee is to appoint a Commission.

An outcome of the USP Council meeting in August this year following an independent investigation into allegations of past mismanagement and abuse of process at the University of the South Pacific.

The committee is made up of eminent Pacific leaders including the Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna, Deputy Prime Minister of Samoa Fiame Naomi Mata’afa and the Attorney General of Fiji Aiyaz Sayed – Khaiyum.

 “There are some remedial actions that need to be taken with the governance and administration of our university and I’m pleased to be part of the subcommittee that was set up by the recent USP council meeting in Nadi in order to start addressing that and I’m relishing the challenge. “

 “We are currently in discussions among the three of us, the Deputy Prime Minister of Samoa and the Acting Prime Minister of Fiji as to how we agree on names, to be submitted to form the commission. By the way it’s a three men commission and I have suggested to the other two colleagues that perhaps we can come to the table with a name each for somebody that we treasure highly in order to be part of that process and I’m waiting to hear back from my colleagues on that.”

Puna also highlighted the candidates must have experiences in education establishments and appreciation of the Pacific.

“ Some knowledge and experience of public administration particularly university or tertiary institutions education establishments but I also think that in addition to that members of the commission must have knowledge and appreciation of the pacific context, I mean this is our university and it doesn’t operate in a vacuum. It has to operate within our region, so I think an appreciation of the cultures and the context of the Pacific that is absolutely necessary.”