Transcript
JAMES ROBINS: We exist on quarterly allocations, which are our recurrent, and that covers salaries and many other things. And when we don't have that we also don't have the promised money to repair or replace all of the facilities, which were essential facilities. We are running on empty.
DON WISEMAN: The operational money does that come through at the time it is meant to or is there a time lag.
JR: There is very much a time lag at the moment. We are still waiting for our last allocation and I know that PNG Unitech have had no salaries paid I believe for the last two months, simply because there are no funds left. You must understand that we supported everything for the four months of the boycott. Let's not call it student unrest, it was politically motivated and we just happened to be the play ground. And for those four months, due to the intimidation of those students who wanted to go to class, we still had to feed, we still had to accommodate. And having got them back on the 5th of September we are now way beyond where we would normally be with the academic year. Normally it would finish on the 3rd week of October, here we are going into the third week of December. Maintenance is not only maintenance of salaries for university staff, it is also the maintenance of services for the students. And that's catering, utilities - water and power, and all the rest of those.
DW: And coupled with that of course you have got a catch-up period that's extending into next year.
JR: That is correct. We normally start towards the middle of February with our freshmen and then come March we start with the 2017 continuing students. This year we begin semester two 2016 on 16th January and that will go right through to the 7th March before they complete that. There will be marking then of those exams and from that will determine whether certain students continue into their next year or whether they are failed.
DW: And if you don't have enough money you can't open the doors in January.
JR: Simple as that. We can't pay salaries if we haven't got our current allocation from the annual budget and also if we aren't able to utilise some of those promised funds to then cover all the extra utilities and things and get us back a little away from the red figures that we are in now.
