By Saio Marrah
The Vice President of Sierra Leone, Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh has called on the administration of the University Of Sierra Leone (USL) to provide a data that indicates how much government is giving as subvention and the shortfall, for accountability and transparency.
The Vice President said this at the launch of the university’s Endowment Fund, a.
The programme was held at the Multi-Purpose Building at Fourah Bay College (FBC) Campus on, Friday 27th January, 2023.
Acting as guest of honour in launching the fund, Jalloh first applauded the initiative of raising funds elsewhere for the running of the university. He said it will salvage the financial misfortune of USL.
The Vice President also noted that the fund is now needed than ever before considering the infrastructural challenges, staff capacity among many others.
According to him, as the three constituent colleges of the university, FBC, Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM), and College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMHAS) have about 27 thousand students combined, a number he said will double in the next five years.
He also noted that the fund will not only send a strong message to the public, but to government as well that the people entrusted with the administration of the university now realised the importance of governance and the importance to improve the financial fortune of the university.
The Vice President also described university as an ecosystem, which he said one cannot talk about sources of finance without talking about a corresponding improvement in governance.
The second gentle man noted that government is looking out for the said data on funds and the gaps and pointed out that since 2019 he had told the administration to produce it.
He said this is because if the university wants additional support they need to show a breakdown of the reason for such with evidence.
While pointing out the role of public university is to continue producing professionals to support the continuity of the state, he urged them to focus on science for the productive sector.
The Chancellor of USL, Dr. James Sanpha Koroma, talked about the establishment of the endowment fund saying there is no university in the world that can wholly depend on government noting that government cannot do everything fully.
The fund he said is geared towards having a sustainable way to keep the university going.
He therefore called on all and sundry to formalize it and that its account has been opened, urging for support to it.
The Chairperson of programme, Justice Fatmata Bintu Alhadi while highlighting the importance of the fund, said it has helped uplift many other universities in the world including Harvard which has up to 40 Billion dollars in its own.
The Endowment Fund is a capital investment made with the intention of generating a consistent revenue stream to support the core mission of USL over the long term though not necessarily in perpetuity.
The fund is being established from the receipt of charitable donations from private individuals, corporations, foundations and organisations.
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