You would recall that the Bolgatanga Technical University (BTU) was in the news in the middle of July, this year, regarding a coordinated move to appoint a senior accountant to a position he was not qualified to occupy.
The report by Media Without Borders foiled that plot— and saved the state losing a lot of money because the senior accountant in question would have received some unearned salaries and allowances— as the university’s governing council consequently declined to endorse the appointment.
But even before the council was compelled by that report to reject the appointment, confusion had broken loose during a job interview on the university’s campus.
The confusion cropped up as some members of the interview panel supported the illegal appointment and some opposed it— and walked away because it clearly breached the Scheme of Service for Staff of Technical Universities in Ghana.
Now, there is a new controversy on the campus.
As you may already be aware, members of the university’s governing council are not allowed to serve on the council beyond two terms, each of which spans or lasts three years.
Statute 7 (1) of the university’s statutes highlights that limitation:
“The Chairperson and members of Council, other than the Vice Chancellor, shall hold office for a period of three (3) years and are eligible for re-appointment for another one term only.”
But on Tuesday, 22 October 2024, the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, wrote a letter to the Minister for Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, granting approval for the already-expired tenure of some members of the university’s governing council to be extended to January 6, 2025.
The directive, which would be a source of controversy soon afterwards, favours three members of the governing council whose tenure has long expired.
The three members— Prof. Francis Abatanga who functions as chair, Prof. (Mrs.) Alfredina Z.P. Kuupole and Freeman Abramani— had served on the council for two terms (totaling six years) and an extra eight months from 2017 to 2024 before the chief of staff approved the extension at the request of some authorities featured in this report.
About two weeks later, a well-known advocate for good governance resident in Bolgatanga, John Paul Danka, dragged the three members to a high court in Tamale.
The plaintiff (Danka) filed the suit on Monday, 4 November 2024, stating that the extension breached the university’s statutes and seeking to stop the three members from serving further on that council.
His lawyer, Sheik-Arif Abdullah, filed a motion on notice for an interlocutory injunction retraining the three individuals (defendants) from holding themselves out as members of the governing council.
Reactions after controversial governing council meeting
On Friday, 8 November 2024, the university’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Samuel Erasmus Alnaa, reportedly set up a governing council meeting to take some crucial decisions.
The three defendants did not participate in the said meeting, reportedly owing to the ongoing lawsuit and the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction.
The vice-chancellor came under criticism from some of the university’s staff and members of the public who, for some reasons, described the meeting as an illegal exercise. The first reason mentioned was that the tenure-extension letter written by the chief of staff was neither addressed nor copied to the university yet the university’s management relied on an intercepted copy of the letter to hold the said meeting.
“They were not supposed to use that letter to organise the meeting,” said a member of the university’s staff. “The letter was an intercepted letter. The letter was addressed to the Ministry of Education. They were supposed to now write a letter to GTEC (Ghana Tertiary Education Commission) with a list of old and current members of the governing council and as they did at Koforidua.”
Touching on a second reason, they said the other members of the governing council were not sued because they had served only one term but were not supposed to participate in that meeting because they had not been duly sworn-in by the President or the Minister for Education for a second term.
“We are going to sue the vice-chancellor and those who took part in that meeting. We learnt that one Prof. Bagah chaired the meeting. We just finished talking to four lawyers. Those who attended the meeting were supposed to have been taken to Accra to be sworn-in.
“Even the letter written by the chief of staff says that those who are currently serving their first term should be sworn-in by the education minister. That was not done and has not been done, yet they held a meeting. We are going for a court order declaring that meeting null and void,” said a Bolgatanga resident, Alhaji Seidu Ali Osman.
He added: “Those who organised the meeting have caused financial loss to the state because that illegal and unauthorised meeting came at a cost. They will refund the cost in the court of law very soon and they will be charged accordingly.”
You cannot be on governing council again after serving two terms— GTEC Director-General
Another reason some observers cited was the absence of the governing council chairman at the meeting.
They said the meeting was not supposed to take place given that there was no chairman and so long as the chairman had not been duly replaced.
“There was no council chairman. The council chairman’s tenure has expired. They were supposed to wait for a new one to be appointed. They couldn’t have had a meeting without a substantive council chairman.
“Apart from that, they could not form a quorum at the meeting. The vice-chancellor had to use zoom to bring people to the meeting, which is also a breach of meeting procedure. Besides, the president of the university’s alumni association, who had been voted out, was present in that meeting. What was he doing in that meeting?” another member of the university’s staff said.
“A representative of the senior staff association, who has also served two terms, was part of the meeting, for a third term. How can that be?”
The vice-chancellor did not respond when the author of this report placed a call to him on Saturday, 9 November 2024. He did not reply, either, to a message forwarded to his mobile telephone number for his comment on the matter.
“We wrote to the presidency for that extension but the only caveat is that if you happen to have done two terms as a council member you cannot be on the council again.
“I have written to them; they would have to sort it out,” GTEC Director-General, Prof. Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai, told Media Without Borders on the telephone on Saturday (yesterday).
The court is scheduled to sit again on Wednesday, 20 November 2024, on the case filed against the three members of the governing council.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana
