Private media training institute allegedly used Jaffna Uni. name for its programmes

A private media training institute has been misusing the name of the University of Jaffna (UoJ) to conduct training programmes for young journalists, since Dec.31, 2016, collecting more than Rs 300 million from foreign donors.

This has been revealed in an Internal Audit ( IA) Report submitted to UoJ Vice Chancellor (VC) R. Wigneswaran.

VC Wigneswaran confirmed to the Sunday Times he was in receipt of the IA Report and would take up the matter with the foreign donors and the University Grants Commission, to initiate appropriate action against the said institute.

Officials who spoke to the Sunday Times on the grounds of anonymity, stated that a former director of the UoJ Media Resources Training Centre (MRTC), which is part of the UoJ Arts Faculty, had set up a bogus institute under the name of Media in Cooperation & Transition (MiCT).

The officials revealed that the original programme to train young journalists was started in 2002 by MRTC, with funding from Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and ended in 2016. The UoJ had accordingly informed Parliament’s Committee on Public Enterprises that the programme had concluded.

However, the former MRTC director, a graduate of the UoJ Arts Faculty, had used the UoJ name and sought funds to continue the MRTC training programme. After consultations with other Faculty Deans and UoJ Department Heads, former UoJ VC Prof Vasanthi Arasaratnam however, had refused to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between the UoJ and the newly formed institute, MiCT, under the former director, and funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation & Development.

Afterwards, the former director had allegedly continued using the UoJ name to train young journalists throughout the island, in all three languages.

Following several complaints against the newly formed MiCT, UoJ officials had initiated an IA. Last week, the IA Report had revealed that, not only had MiCT misused the name of the UoJ, but had unlawfully obtained more than Rs 300 million in funds from foreign donors, by submitting false documents.

The IA Report had further revealed that MiCT had spent Euros 26,250 ( Rs 5,013,750) for a month's training programme.

An MiCT official however, refuted the allegations as being baseless, adding they are continuing with their training programmes for new journalists. “We have no involvement with the UoJ,” the official stressed.