[P2P-F] open budget

Mon Jul 7 06:43:08 CEST 2014

Orsan, you write:

Orsan, the budget was highly secretive and tightly  controlled by the flok
mgt team; in fact, AD was removed (though they are claiming he removed
 himself, so I'm not sure), largely because he tried to get a regular and
open budget done controlled by the institution. It was the key area of
contention and why he has been called a spy.

Here is my guesswork:

* the project was tri-funded by the Min of Knowledge, the Senescyt
innovation secretariat and the IAEN  institution

* the entire process with wages may have reached $400k , with an additional
$300k plus for the summit

The wage issue was highly contentious, from before I reached the project.
The rector wanted to pay intl' level wages to foreign researchers, and this
was not taken well by the locals. On the other hand, the institution payed
some people very well who never showed up, and trying to get rid of them
 is one of the causes that caused him the loss of his job. The ratio of
staff to students is incredibly skewed at the IAEN but I can't remember the
ratio, but much more staff than students.

My understanding is that most of the research team got $4k and I got $5.x
as 'director'. There is no doubt that this is well paid, but it is still
less for a month than a private consulting gets for a day. So, if the FLOK
is a genuine transition project, that was not outside of decency. There is
a lot of discussion about the other salaries, which are shrouded in
secrecy. One of the most often expressed critiques directed at me and the
research team: how can you guys make so much noise when you are paid so
well, 'aren't you ashamed'; on the other hand, 'flok mgt works tirelessly
for nearly nothing'. This is the mythology, used again and again, but I'm
not sure it is the truth; from very good accounting sources, I was informed
that they earned four times their claims, but I can't prove this. But as
I've learned not to trust anything said coming from the flok mgt, I tend to
give credence to my source.

As for me,  yes, I was well paid, after living under the minimum wage for
seven years. We had to pay our own tickets, rent and rent guarantees, all
internal job-related travels, and because of the length of the engagement,
I had to bring my family for two months (this was a stated condition of my
employment, even if I had to finance it myself). Because of the
structurally late payments, I had to pay 40% more for these tickets, and on
average, since we all had to take loans, 20% interest fees. So, just to
say, despite appearances, none of us got rich from this, and we worked
tirelessly, in very tough circumstances, 12 to 14 hours a day, including
many weekend days. So, we are  certainly not victims, privileged for sure,
but not getting rich on this assignment either. Neither of us asked for
anything, we accepted an invitation with its conditions, so I think the
whole wage controversy is really a side issue.

I'm not suggesting any budget malfeasance, the opacity of the budget was
exclusively an issue of political control. You should also take into
account that due to the structural non-payment, the flok mgt had to make
superhuman efforts for the project to merely survive. Two full-time staff
were engaged just to speed up our payments (they achieved a 6 week average
delay due to superhuman efforfts): I was told, but can't verify this, that
26 signatures were needed each month for each wage, a sign of terrible
bureaucracy. (while I critique the hierarchical aspects of the mgt process
we should not forget the extreme structural stress they were facing day in
day out).

Also, apart from the real work, we were forced to produce partly fictitious
'products', taking 2-3 working days to produce, as proof of our work. These
had to be delivered 10 days before the end of each month, hence having a 10
day 'future narrative' included. You have no idea of the level of
dysfunctional bureaucracy that was prevalent. This is not exclusively a
flok and IAEN problem, as the young and mosty precarious Prometheo
researchers also are routinely not paid for the first four months of their
work. Unless you have strong reserves to withstand such delays, I would not
recommend any foreigner to work as a scholar in Ecuador for the moment. But
if you have reserves and go for the experience and engagement with local
people, it's worthwhile, it's a spectacular place. The structural situation
in Ecuador is that most of the education funding goes to Yachai, a rather
terrible neoliberal experiment in a green desert, signing secret deals with
Microsoft, etc ..  There is really nothing there, and won't be, for a very
long time. While the existing universities are being underfunded, this
artificial place, which will be structurally incapable of atracting the
creative class (even richard florida thinks it's a terrible idea), is
getting all the attention and funding. It's a little bit like the anti-FLOK
project, though funded by the same Ministry, one of the many contradictions
of the project and the political situation in Ecuador. Just as it was
impossible to find a single civic mvt with a positive view of the
government (at least amongst the 70 we spoke with); it was equally
impossible to find a single university administrator or scholar that
supported the current education policy. It's part of the divorce between
the intellectual class and the government that I discussed earlier,

Michel

-- 
*Please note an intrusion wiped out my inbox on February 8; I have no
record of previous communication, proposals, etc .. *

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