Good Versus Evil Battle At UNITECH: Will It Reveal Peter O’Neill’s Helplessness At Fighting Corruption?

By Concern Educator

“UNITECH Saga 2013” as students now call it, has been labelled a fight between good versus evil.    It’s also turning out to be a public test of whether Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has any real power to control rogue elements that exist within today’s PNG educated elite.  There are disturbing signs that O’Neill finds himself powerless against these elements as they manipulate the system to cover up wrongdoings and screw their opponents, while screaming ‘defamation’ whenever they hear any allegation of impropriety.    

All this is happening right now in UNITECH Saga 2013 where such rogue creatures look determined to destroy the best opportunity UNITECH has had in more than a generation to experience true reform and progress.    

Perhaps our Prime Minister was blinded to this growing picture by what seemed to be an initial focus on counteracting a once unspeakable blasphemy:   Papua New Guineans publicly demanding that a European be their boss over ANY alternative national.   These demands must have made some older educated Papua New Guineans want to vomit.   After all, as PNG’s first educated elites, we led the drive to localise.  We were the ones who were supposed to sustain the early high quality of PNG’s education for future generations as we replaced the departing expatriates. 

Many of us failed to fill those shoes and our younger generations now demand better.  If their national teachers teach out of date information and continue to passively accept rundown facilities, they want the expatriates back.    

Who can blame them?   Yet it is almost unbelievable that 38 years after independence, we might have to start over again, repopulating our universities with majority expatriate teachers and administrators.    Divine Word University has essentially done this and look at their results.  Here at the Office of Higher Education many still shake our heads in disbelief at how low we’ve sunk.  We got the bad news in 2010 with the Namaliu-Garnaut report on PNG tertiary education.    We enter 2013 knowing that we’re still going  backwards.

However, our PM pushed all these realities aside in January, telling students that Albert Schram is not irreplaceable, that UNITECH’s progress doesn’t depend upon one person, etc.   It seemed to be an intentional attempt to prepare UNITECH for a world without Schram.  The fact that those remarks have fallen on deaf ears is a clear indication that UNITECHers believe the PM is either unwittingly or helplessly on the wrong side.  

Anyone in PNG today who dares to state that students graduating from UPNG or UNITECH will leave with a world class education may hear laughter in reply.  Yet, for many years former UNITECH Chancellor Philip Stagg perpetrated the lie at each UNITECH graduation.   Apparently he felt that if he said it often enough his delusion would come true.   Not quite!  Students aren’t stupid.  They see the decay all around at UPNG as well as UNITECH and their visiting parents often react with horror at today’s skeletons of the fine institutions they once attended.

Knowing all that, was it any surprise that last April Stagg was chased like a rat out of UNITECH, his car burnt behind him as he frantically climbed the boundary fence in fear for his life, ripping his nice trousers?   What brought on that spectacle of justice well served?    It all started when he and the now arrested former Registrar Alan Sako tried to double handedly sack the new Vice Chancellor Albert Schram.  It didn’t work that day because a strongly honest SRC president spread the news and the students went after Stagg and Sako.   Thinking back to those events must even now make both of them shake with rage, since it seems that getting payback against Schram has become Stagg’s top priority.  It’s even more obvious that the well being of UNITECH was never high on his list.

When the Stagg Council first welcomed Albert Schram to UNITECH, they seemed to have no problem with him.   After all, they were the ones who offered him the job.    However, Stagg and Ralph Saulep (former  Pro-Chancellor in the Stagg Council) in particular seemed to turn on Schram the moment it appeared that certain past horrors of bad governance and corruption at UNITECH were going to see the light of day.  

Thanks to Schram and his small army of honest hard working nationals, today we see real progress in cleaning up UNITECH.    Four UNITECH people have been arrested for fraud and conspiracy (hopefully more to come):  former VC Misty Baloiloi, former Registrar Alan Sako, Bursar Jimmy Imbok, and former HOD of Electrical Engineering Narawan Gehlot.   Gehlot is a dual Indian-American citizen who speaks like a con artist, writes poorer than one would expect from a doctorate degree holder, and allegedly received a personal PIP money cheque of over K675,000.   Allegedly much of this money funded the 2012 campaigns of Sako and Baloiloi (a sin far worse than what Baloiloi denied to the newspapers  - that he had “never put stolen food on the table for his family”).  

It has been obvious to insiders that UNITECH was in a mess for years during the Stagg Council’s governance.  The worst smell seems to centre around the Baloiloi family (3 members of whom were serving as UNITECH academics, with son Wayne getting an M.S. Degree in less than 2 years, thanks to Gehlot – then quickly being hired as a new faculty member!).    Other published rumours also need investigation, including the allegation that past Registrar Alan Sako received a sizeable cash advance prior to his contesting the 2008 election which was never repaid.

Even though they seem to know most of the above history, some UNITECH students  still question why they should pursue this fight to the end, since they came to uni simply to earn their degrees then find a job.   Actually, that’s what UNITECH’s students decided in 2008 – to do nothing.    That year, the Stagg council (yes, you read this right) had been suspended by the government (yes, you read right), replaced by an interim council headed by Sir Nagora Bogan (again, you read right).    History repeats itself identically, except that in 2008 UNITECH’s deterioration was being managed by Emperor Misty, well known for praising blind loyalty while harshly punishing critics.    

Emperor Misty’s decrees in 2008 resulted in the resignations of 20 staff, including some of the most talented nationals that UNITECH could ever hope to find.   The Stagg Council regained its power.  And because the students didn’t sufficiently support those brave UNITECH staff in their fight against mismanagement, nepotism and corruption, the staff lost, vocal dissenters were forced out of the system, and the university’s decline accelerated.    UNITECH’s diminutive virtual “Professor” (how does an academic who hardly ever publishes get that promotion?) “Dr” (Baloiloi has always evaded demands for proof that he has anything other than an honourary doctorate degree from UPNG) continued his comic, ego-obsessed reign.

All of us in PNG should be thankful that UNITECH Saga 2013 has a more concerned student body than during Saga 2008.   In 2012, thousands witnessed the distinct difference in Baloiloi’s versus Schram’s management.   For a start, Albert Schram didn’t kill 8 cows to celebrate his new job as Emperor Misty did to self-honour his departure (the food was served some 7 hours later than scheduled in the darkness of night, ending the royal debacle).   Unlike the Emperor, Schram often walked around campus meeting students, personally visiting departments, and eating in the student mess.   What UNITECHers seem most delighted with that year was the miraculous elimination of potholes in the university’s main roads plus the student’s peaceful acceptance of dorm double-bunking for 2013.   Not only that, over 20 new staff houses began construction.   For the first time in people’s recollection it seemed that UNITECH’s demise was not preordained, which questioned where the money went during the Emperor's reign.  Schram’s management brought high praise from the majority, although there was a disgruntled few who would rather have an Emperor than a European as their boss, and mounted a failed rebellion against Schram, which ended in their demotion, departure or termination.  And naturally, Schram greatly offended all who have since been arrested for fraud.  

All told, if the majority UNITECHer wish prevails, good will win over evil, proven effective management will return, and Dr Albert Schram will be back in the VC’s chair over in Lae before long.   Unfortunately there are disturbing signs that the rogue elements may yet win this war by bypassing the PM and fulfilling their goal of either reclaiming power or exacting sweet revenge against the man they blame for their public humiliations.   Either way, Peter O’Neill will look helpless if not hopeless and certainly powerless to take control of the situation.

Suspicions of the PM's underlying intentions and involvement now abound:  In January, he announced there would be a 2 month inquiry into UNITECH’s affairs.   Yet nearly half that time elapsed without a bit of action.  Then there was the Prime Minister’s odd promise that Albert Schram could come back to PNG anytime he wanted (on a “tourist visa” if necessary, the PM said – which is essentially an invitation to commit fraud!).   The reality is that each time Albert Schram tried to enter PNG over the past weeks, he was deported (Foreign Affairs initially didn’t want to use that term in a transparent game of deception).    This indicates that the Prime Minister and his Minister have lost control over their own Foreign Affairs Department, and that Stagg, Saulep or cronies are the real behind the scenes power brokers.

Even more bizarre are the terms of reference for the so-called objective inquiry into UNITECH’s affairs that the PM has promoted.  Has he bothered to read the terms of reference?   It completely ignores the numerous allegations of fraud and corruption during the time of Stagg and Baloioi regime, and focuses almost exclusively on Schram:

1.  Establish whether proper due diligence process was followed in the search, short listing, selection and appointment of the VC – Dr Albert Schram.

2.  Establish whether the Registrar’s office [at UNITECH] was involved for background search and recommendation.

3.  Establish whether proper process was followed in the two instances of termination of the VC’s contract.

4.  Establish whether the meeting of 8th November by the Council to terminate the VC’s contract was validly convened.

5.  Establish whether the termination of the VC on the 8th November was lawful and valid.

6.  Establish the truth or otherwise of allegations that Dr Albert Ernst Giovanni Schram fabricated and/or lied about his Academic Qualification and/or identity.

Only the 7th term of reference focuses squarely on the Stagg council:  “whether the conduct and management of the Council was consistent with the relevant governing Acts and Council By-laws and as such, were lawful.  In addition, establish whether or not the role and actions) of members of the Stagg Council had a direct impact on the impasse”.     According to some, the result will screw Albert Schram even if it appears to indict the Stagg Council – because if Stagg’s Council is, in fact, judged guilty of wrongdoing, then Schram’s hiring might automatically be voided.

One wonders how Peter O’Neill could possibly present this as an objective inquiry when it looks more like a setup against Schram.   Our PM has conspicuously avoided addressing this, which again makes it appear that Stagg & company are the real powers in this game.     As students in greater numbers read the TOR, the PM ends up with more egg on his face.

All this brings forth a bigger concern:   Is the O’Neill government’s anti-corruption campaign actually being trumped by rogue elements twisting the PM around their little fingers?  

 Many citizens have noticed that even now, no top dog ever seems to be jailed for more than a few minutes, even when Sam Koim’s task force is involved.   Wondering:  If the stolen UNITECH PIP money is quietly returned, will Koim proudly claim that over half a million kina was recovered while Baloiloi, Sako, Imbok and Gehlot are quietly released, free to try and reclaim their former positions at UNITECH?  

If the rogue elements win UNITECH Saga 2013, there’s no doubt about it, PNG loses big time.   Our PM doesn’t seem to realise that.    Perhaps neither does the PNG public.   Do you?

God bless our PNG universities and God bless PNG.   Both will never regain their former glory unless we all start speaking out and spreading the word more forcefully.     Starting with UNITECH Saga 2013.