Has Mr. Narine obtained funding for IAST similar to that he got for Trent University?
DEAR EDITOR, I expect Mr. Suresh Narine to clamour for protection of the funding for the agency he oversees. That is expected and normal conduct from Suresh Narine. His letter titled “I have never been accused of enjoying privileges because of my funding success” (KN, May 6, 2014) is a prime example of a man fighting for the agency he supervises. What got me was this statement made by Mr. Narine: “All my professional life I have competed for research funding and until now, have never been accused of enjoying privileges because of my funding success, despite, for example, being responsible for more than 25% of the entire research funding received by Trent University; an institution with multiple hundreds of faculty members such as myself.” I had to investigate this statement. Indeed, Mr. Narine is correct. Trent University is a big university with over 250 academic staff and over 8000 students. It has an endowment of $25 million Canadian dollars. I could imagine Trent University gets tens of millions of US dollars in funding every year from various sources. If Mr. Narine is bringing in more than 25% of Trent University’s entire research funding, he is probably bringing in millions of US dollars to Trent University yearly. The question one must ask Mr. Narine is this: has he delivered similar outstanding research funding for IAST as he has for Trent University? Surely, such a masterful procurer of research funding has delivered incredible funding to IAST comparable to his magnificent efforts for Trent University! In my research on Mr. Narine for this letter, I noticed that some have accused him in the past of being a non-resident Director of IAST. Clearly, the man is immensely qualified, but he has a full plate. He holds various academic posts in Canada, Co-Chairman of CGX Energy Inc and IAST Director. Unless he is paying for his travel and other expenses in relation to IAST and is foregoing a salary from IAST, one must wonder how expensive this arrangement is for the people of Guyana to maintain a non-resident Director of IAST, who is incidentally publicly calling for continuity of budgetary funding for his agency from the opposition. Here is an individual who reminds us of his stellar record in securing funding for a foreign institution where he works full-time but is publicly imploring the opposition to maintain funding for the agency he oversees on a part-time basis and one that suffers from a serious deficit of research funding. The irony is truly telling. The icing on the cake would be Mr. Narine writing his pleas from the comforts of his office at Trent University. Maybe it is time for Mr. Narine to bring his formidable research funding acquisition skills to the benefit of IAST to make it less dependent on the whims of the opposition. IAST cannot be de-funded by the opposition but Mr. Narine should tell us what exactly he has brought to IAST in funding comparable to his formidable acquisitions for Trent University. M. Maxwell