Thursday 25 August 2011

The HCT 100 Scandal!

The latest HCT scandal concerns the millions of bucks that have been squandered on the pampered HCT management, when it is supposed to be used for the benefit of the students. The money, raised through the HCT100 project, is supposed to be spent responsibly on scholarships, to build programs, hire international experts, and the like.

The official blurb goes like this:

The HCT 100 was established as an exclusive group within the HCT Foundation.

We invite donors to join the HCT 100 by becoming one of the founding 100 members to commit AED one million each to the HCT Foundation over three years.

A contribution at this level will demonstrate a clear and resounding commitment to the human resource development of the UAE.


So what really happens? Kamali and his cronies divvy the booty up amongst themselves! Now you know why there is a freeze on salary increments. I seriously recommend that HCT staffers go to the HCT Foundation website and begin contacting the businesses that support it. Ask them what is going on, and they will report that it is a scam.

In fact, numerous companies have started asking where the money is going. They were promised all sorts of things before the infamous signings between Sheikh Nahayan and company representatives.

However, within a couple of months of signing, most companies began asking questions. The smart companies have stopped their payments, whereas the stupid and corrupt ones believe whatever they are told and keep paying.

In fact, most of the companies who make payments are actually doing business with HCT. So HCT gives millions of dirhams in business to a company, and the company returns a small percentage back to HCT.

It’s mostly banks and larger companies participating in this, but in order for international companies to do business in the UAE, they need someone to sponsor them. The signings are a confirmation of the agreement. So it's like a kickback or paying a tribute of some sort.

The beautiful trick here is that it’s quite difficult to prove a lot of this because the 'books' aren't open to the general public. However, check out the companies supporting this Foundations scam, then see if you can find out who does business with HCT.

I am sure Melanie Swan from The National would be keen to know, as she was interested about a year ago.

Saturday 13 August 2011

"You're all HCT cannon fodder, and nothing more."

The observations below arrived as a comment to my previous posting, but I feel that they deserve pride of place here. They appear to be from a former Big Cheese insider at HCT, one who was no doubt unceremoniously deposed by King Tubby and his cronies. His remarks offer a revealing insight into just how Kamali's 'inner chamber' works, and how Dr SiJo has been instrumental in such disgusting deceit and corruption.

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"make a list of all those institutions and organizations with whom HCT has signed MOUs, and established partnerships, and inform them of the Faculty and support staff view"


The person who wrote this obviously doesn't understand anything about HCT's MOUs and deals with external institutions, or how it all really works.

Firstly, there's literally a box-load of MOUs at ACS gathering dust in a closet. Most of these have simply been self-congratulatory wank-fests and photo-ops for Sheik Nancy and his/her girlfriend TK. I was personally party to at least 2 of these meaningless exercises signed with VIPs with stirling credentials from world-class institutions. There are dozens, if not hundreds of these useless scraps of paper that have been signed and largely forgotten.

The institutions signing with HCT don't care about any of you little people or HCT's integrity. It's all opportunistic and about the money. Now that there's not so much money to grease palms, the MOUs have started to dry up.

The same goes for the institutions who are actually doing something with HCT, such as those involved with CERT.

Money simply flows into pet projects and away from HCT. Festival of Stinkers and Education Without Benefits are just 2 that actually see the full glare of publicity. There are loads of other spurious activities going on, that none of you know about.

For one thing, CERT is a black hole.

The MBA scam at CERT uses links to Harvard and Stanford etc. to sell the program for huge fees (but still loses pots of money), when in fact it is only faculty from these schools who are flown in at great expense and for obscene fees to teach the odd course here and there: (e.g. one Harvard prof was paid $120,000 US for a 30 hour module. A Stanford prof was paid $89,000 for a similar gig). SiJo is at the center of this scam, running the show as head of grad programs, and doing the bidding of the 2 top dogs - Nancy and TK.

The degrees have Harvard and Stanford watermarked in the background; a sinister idea from HCT Academic Deputy Provost Jim Pounder to delude the naive locals that they are actually getting an accredited degree affiliated with top business schools. It's all a shameful con job.

Want to know where a lot of HCT money has gone? You don't need to look any further than HCT Foundation - a topic so hush-hush that even top brass at ACS are scared to discuss it. "It's above my pay grade," was the response from an ashen-faced Jim Pounder in an ACS management meeting, when asked about HCT Foundation by one of the deans.

The general belief, of course is that it is TK's and Sheik Nancy's personal slush fund.

The bottom line for all of you in the trenches is - NOBODY (who could do anything, that is) CARES! There's too much grand larceny going on at the top and too many noses in the trough (both internal and external) to worry about the peasantry.

Suggesting that anyone, including outside institutions or accrediting bodies cares if you're sacked, treated badly and generally abused flies in the face of reality.

You're all HCT cannon fodder, and nothing more.