It has been two months since the general election but the University council is still not functioning after the Government appointees resigned.

Instead of letting the council get on with its work until new councillors are nominated, all councillors were immediately forced to resign

The situation was flagged by University lecturer Arnold Cassola, who said academic and non-academic decisions were blocked because the Government has not yet appointed its 13 council members.

The Government commands a majority on the 24-member body that has the ultimate say on decisions that affect the University’s running.

The councillors appointed by the previous administration resigned after the election and the Education Ministry has so far failed to appoint new ones.

Prof. Cassola told Times of Malta that all letters of appointment, pending promotions and decisions related to the introduction of new courses had stalled.

The council has to rubberstamp such decisions.

“Instead of letting the council get on with its work until new councillors are nominated, in keeping with the usual tribal priorities of this country, all nominated councillors on the government-dominated body were immediately forced to resign, thus blocking all possibility of having the University carry-ing on with its essential academic (and non-academic) work,” Prof. Cassola said.

Questions sent to the Educ-ation Ministry on the subject went unanswered despite repeated reminders.

Prof. Cassola said he looked forward to the day when “Banana republic approaches” were substituted by civilised ones.

“While now waiting for the Government to oust the PN nominated councillors and replace them with the new tagħna lkoll PL nominees, the council is in rigor mortis,” he added.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com