The governing council of the Bolgatanga Technical University (BTU) has rejected the controversial application submitted by Solomon Awariya, a senior accountant at the institution, for appointment as a deputy director of finance.
The council arrived at the verdict during a meeting held Friday, two days after Media Without Borders published a report about a breach― and a controversy― regarding the application.
How long a senior accountant must serve at a technical university or its equivalent in Ghana before they qualify to apply for appointment to the position of a director of finance is clearly spelt out in the Scheme of Service for Staff of Technical Universities.
The guidebook says the applicant “must have served” as a senior accountant for “at least six years” to be eligible for that appointment.
Awariya was appointed a senior accountant on Tuesday, 10 January 2023— only one and a half years ago. Not until after Wednesday, 10 January 2029, will he be qualified for appointment as a deputy director of finance, as per the terms contained in the scheme of service.
But he applied for “employment as a deputy director of finance” when the university invited applications from its staff for appointments to some positions recently.
When he appeared before an eight-member panel for an interview on Friday, 12 July 2024, to justify his application, two members of the panel waged an open disapproval against his invitation.
His ‘hasty’ bid for that position flew in the face of standard practice at an altitude too much for the two interviewers to contain.
Pointing out that his application was at variance with what the scheme of service said, the two abstained from interviewing him and never awarded him any marks.
But the other members of the panel did not see any breach of law in the senior accountant’s attempt to leapfrog his current position, skipping the remaining four and a half years of the required six years, to become a deputy director of finance prematurely.
That being so, they welcomed him, interviewed him and awarded him scores.
Head of internal audit faces disciplinary committee after speaking the truth
The director of the university’s internal audit, Lucy Afelik, chose to stand on the side of truth when she openly distanced herself from the senior accountant’s application at the interview session.
When contacted by the author of this report prior to the previous publication on this matter last week, she shed more light on the confusion that rocked the interview chamber.
“The interview came off on the 12th, and there was confusion there. Some of us did not agree. Some even abstained from the interview [because it breached the scheme]. But others sat through.
“I wasn’t there as an internal auditor. I was there as an external assessor. At the moment, I’m trying to deal with my issue through the governing council. I want to make a case with the governing council,” she said last week.
Another key highlight of the post-publication meeting was the council directing that a query letter be served on the director of internal audit for granting the press— Media Without Borders— an unauthorised interview on the controversy.
According to a Media Without Borders source, the council also directed that a committee be set up to take disciplinary action against her with respect to the media interview.
The committee was also tasked to investigate how copies of the university’s documents, which were showcased in the previous publication, found their way out of the campus into the hands of this media outlet.
A source said an authority at the university demanded with raw temper that Lucy Afelik be sacked immediately for talking to the press and that she, in reply, said she would not surrender her commitment to the scheme of service and correctness even if it meant losing her job.
Another source disclosed that the query letter was served on the director of internal audit in the morning hours of today.
Public sympathy is welling up for her, particularly outside the Sumbrungu campus, among those who have heard about the action being meted out to her by the council after taking sides with the truth.
They say they will defend her right to freedom of speech for defending what is right.
When contacted on Monday (today) for his comment on the latest development, the chairman of the governing council, Prof. Francis Atindaana Abantanga, said “it’s not necessary” to comment and abruptly ended the telephone conversation.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana
