STORM AT UPSA...VC ACCUSED OF RUNNING FAMILY BUSINESS

Prof. Josuah Alabi

Prof Goski B. Alabi

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

A visiting professor at the University of Professional Studies Accra (UPSA), formerly known as IPS, is accusing Vice Chancellor Josuah Alabi and his wife Goski of running the university like ‘family business or franchise.’

Prof. Charles Owusu Kwarteng has therefore petitioned the National Accreditation Board (NAB) to investigate issues he raised concerning the running of the university, particularly the role allegedly being played by Prof Goski.

However, the university flatly denied the allegation of the Professor and asked him to be frank in his dealings with the university.

“We are not running a family franchise as he put it. Everything here is done in a very transparent manner. The Vice Chancellor has an open door policy. It can’t be that we are running a family franchise as he claims,” Kasser Tee, Head of Public Affairs at UPSA told DAILY GUIDE in an extensive interview last Friday.

According to Prof. Kwarteng, there is an ongoing ‘scheme’ in place for Prof. Goski Alabi, an Associate Professor and Dean of the School of Graduate Studies of the university, to succeed her husband later as Vice Chancellor.

DAILY GUIDE gathered that the NAB, upon receipt of the petition of February 24, 2014, reportedly commenced investigation into the matter by writing to the university to respond to Prof. Kwarteng’s concerns raised.

Mr. Tee has also confirmed that the regulator (NAB) had indeed written to the university and also confirmed that the university had since sent a reply to NAB.

Prof. Kwarteng’s allegation range from conflict of interest violation, academic tyranny, discrimination, academic fraud, harassment of PhD holders, promotion based on arbitrary criteria, as well as the administration’s lack of respect for faculty.

According to the petitioner, the UPSA is maintaining what he called a ‘zero tolerance’ for professors because most faculties are of the opinion that appointments, administration, and policies of the university are done to protect the interest of the Vice Chancellor’s wife to take over from her hubby.

He said it is clear that “nobody should be hired with, or promoted to the professorial rank that she holds, because the administration is promoting her to succeed her husband as Vice Chancellor.”

“She continues to perform certain academic duties and functions that usurp the powers of the university bodies, offices, and committees. In addition, most faculty and employees are concerned that she has ‘the final say’ in decisions of committees and panel, but not limited to appointment.”

Prof. Kwarteng claims the UPSA had failed to actively recruit Ph.D. holders and the university had not shown any interest in retaining them when they are hired.

He said most faculties without terminal degrees are complaining about lack of any faculty development programme as well as discrimination in terms of opportunities for advancement.

“The university has to explain which faculty, in the past, have been sponsored to complete terminal degrees, and whether or not the wife of the Vice Chancellor was selectively sponsored to pursue a terminal degree.”

He claimed that he had a personal experience of “fraudulent evaluation and falsification of students’ appraisal/evaluation of faculty” when he taught a graduate course in Business Ethics (MBAF 617).

“Most faculty employees of UPSA see the implications of conflict of interest, and its ramification for the integrity of academic freedom,” adding that “most people are afraid to openly talk about it because of retaliatory consequences.”

Prof. Kwarteng again alleged that the discrepancies between qualification and academic rank “is worst at UPSA than any university I know,” and added that it had allowed the university to maintain a discriminatory academic ranking system that sets it apart from other universities in the country.

“The opinion of the faculty of UPSA is that, the wife of the Vice Chancellor does not want anyone to have a higher rank than what she has. At the time of my interview, she had the rank of ‘Senior Lecturer,’” Prof. Kwarteng said, adding “she has since been promoted and uses the title ‘Professor’.”

“We are not sure how the wife of the Vice-Chancellor was promoted. What procedures were used? How many publications did she have at the time of her elevation to her present rank? Which people were on her promotion committee and their ranks?” he queried further.

He claimed that at UPSA, “assignment of classes and other duties are often done, not on the basis of merit, but on the whims and caprices of people in authority.”

“The university maintains customs, policies, practices and procedures that are based on impermissible discriminatory animus, and maintains an abusive and hostile working environment, in violation of the protection of clause of the 1992 Constitution and the National Labour Act, 2003 Act 651.”

Rebuttal

Last Friday, the UPSA authorities met DAILY GUIDE over the issue. Apart from Mr. Tee, other officers present at the meeting were Godwin Adagwine, Fortunate Fio, Charles Barnor, Vera Akomeah and James Afedo.

Mr. Tee said “I don’t know how one individual will be working at ensuring that another individual will succeed him,” adding “there are structures in place regarding how VCs are appointed. They usually advertise and qualified candidates apply when the position falls vacant. I do not know how one individual can manipulate the system.”

He said “it cannot be true that the university has a zero tolerance for PhD holders as he is claiming. He himself came in as a PhD holder and he had the PhD prior to entering UPSA and there are several others. We have a lot of lecturers in this university who are pursuing PhD.”

He said for instance that in the past one week alone, three candidates had got their PhD saying “the university sponsored them to pursue PhDs so it cannot be true that the UPSA has a zero tolerance for PhD holders.”

Mr. Tee said the PhD holders attended almost the same university that the Vice Chancellor’s wife attended and queried “are grooming, training and sponsoring people who have worked here for long and we go through all these only to let them go away? That will beat any Logic!”

“If you go to the graduate school there are so many people who teach there and they don’t have the same kind of complaints that he has. The dean cannot teach every subject in the graduate school.

He said “he taught at the graduate school even before the appraisal interview and subsequent confirmation and it was wrong for him to turn around to say that PhD holders were not being allowed to teach at the graduate school.”

Mr. Tee said as far as the university was concerned, Prof. Goski has met all requirements to become dean of graduate studies saying “she was a senior lecturer and had PhD on top of it. She has met the requirement to be made an Associate Professor. She was not smuggled in. She went through the processes and she met the requirements.”

He said what triggered the agitation was when Prof. Kwarteng wanted to be promoted whilst on probation saying “he knows the ranks yet when he was applying, he applied for lecturer (Level Two). Under six months he applied for elevation when he was still on probation. He applied not Senior Lecturer but to full Professor.”

Mr. Tee said the UPSA wrote back to him saying the application was premature since he was under probation and also that he had not more than 14 publications to his credit to be professor.

“He was seeking to be confirmed at all cost probably and also to be made a professor. I do not know whether it is in his interest for us to discuss these things in public. If the university were to put out everything about his performance and delivery, it will not be in his interest.”

Charles Barnor who is the president of UTAG at UPSA said the association also investigated the allegations of their colleague and came to the conclusion that “they do not have any merit.”

“UTAG is here to ensure that management follows rules and regulations. UTAG also ensures a balance between members and the university. If PhD holders were being harassed, he would not have been employed.”