FLEXING Serpent's Tongue Against AHLUWALIA: Former Director of the USP's Centre for Flexible Learning SOM NAIDU wants USP COUNCIL to oust Ahluwalia. But FICAC should look at Naidu's 'Abuse of Office' FILE

SOMAIYA (SOM) NAIDU (left) is accused of receiving nearly $130,000 in BACK PAY. It was done unilaterally and without a Staff Review. He was also supposed to be reviewed for further employment by the post-retirement (65) Employment Committee. It is alleged on his USP 'Abuse of Office' File that the former VC RAJESH CHANDRA had appointed Naidu despite more qualified candidates, and that he was 65, USP's compulsory retirement age. Also, the "FILE" claims he had never returned to Fiji from Australia to serve his BOND after he was sent for further studies in 1990. In 2016, he was appointed as Associate Professor and Head of USP's Centre for Flexible Learning. In Janaury 2018 his salary, backdated to March 2017, had risen to a whopping $280,000. The letter was signed by ANJEELA JOKHAN, currently Permament Secretary for Education. WHY WAS IT BACKDATED TO MARCH 2017?
(See below raft of allegations against Naidu)
We are yet to receive any response from Naidu who resides in Australia

Former Pro-VC, and Director of the Centre for Flexible Learning at USP, Professor Som Naidu is calling on the USP Council and the University to move on from this toxic situation, and advertise for a new Vice Chancellor to unite them. Professor Naidu says it is disappointing to see the legacy of the regional institution being dragged down into the gutter with the current impasse facing the University. In a letter to the USP Council, Professor Naidu expressed that everyone wants good governance that is not contested adding that the impasse at the institution is hardly about governance and who is best placed to provide it. Naidu says his position on the issue is that most of it is derived from petty rivalries among individuals and factions at the University, and former VC Professor Pal Ahluwalia is guilty of creating the division. The former academic wrote when Professor Ahluwalia arrived at USP, it was apparent that he had little understanding of flexible learning, and this was a concern for Professor Naidu who at the time was heading the Centre for Flexible Learning. Professor Naidu also claims that Professor Ahluwalia, no longer commands the support of the majority of staff and students at the University.
FBC News, 14 February 2021

Raft of allegations re Naidu's USP File:
*1980-1990, Course Developer at USP in Distance Education;
* 1990, USP provide assistance and approve leave and education allowance for him to do a PhD;
*He never returns to USP to serve his BOND; lists citizenship, Australian
*In 2016, after nearly 25 years returns from Melbourne, to USP after former VC
RAJESH CHANDRA offers Naidu a 12 month contract (18 November) as Associate Professor and Head of Centre for Flexible Learning;
*He is already 65, USP's Compulsory Retirement Age;
*2017 December, offered  3 year contract (2016-2018) on $F209,192.50 p.a.;
*Also, full Professorship at the Centre;
*34 Candidates had applied but he was only one shortlisted, interviewed, and given JOB, despite already being 65 years old, and many more were far more qualified;
*In 2018, nine months into his appointment, awarded another PAY RISE through a letter (dated 4 September 2018);
*His salary increased by $F69,250 to a whopping $278,442, effective 1 January 2018 and backdated to 13 March 2017;
* The cost of total package of the variation close to $F130,000

The 2017 contract was signed by Interim Director HR Dhiraj Bhartu (transferred from Centre for Flexible Learning led by Somaiya Naidu) and the 2018 variation letter was signed by Acting Vice President (Digital Services and Human Resources) Associate Professor Anjeela Jokhan (transferred from Faculty of Science, Technology and Environment). Both officers were tacitly placed in acting positions by ex-DVC Professor Armstrong and ex-VCP Rajesh Chandra