UENR
TENSION IS reportedly mounting between the Council of the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) and the local members of University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) and the Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA) on one hand over what the latter alleges to be parallel administration being run by the Pro Vice Chancellor supported by the Council Chairman (CC) as against the Vice Chancellor (VC).
As a result of the tension, the unions have petitioned the Minister for Education, Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh, to intervene in the matter else they will lay down their tools.
The petition is said to have been presented to the minister on January 17, and the petitioners are yet to receive feedback from the sector minister.
As members of UTAG and GAUA await response from the minister, tension is escalating among lecturers over who is the rightful person to run the university between Prof VC Prof. Emmanuel Opuni Frimpong and the VC Prof. Harrison Dapaah
The petition, a copy of which is available to DAILY GUIDE, is urging the minister to investigate why the CC, Prof. Ambrose K. Tuah, unilaterally refused to accept the draft statutes of the university after so much had been expended on a committee to draft and finalise the statutes of the university to become a working document.
It said after weaning itself from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology three years ago, UENR is supposed to have its own statutes to run the school. The CC rejected the draft statute after the committee had sat for 18 times and over GH¢100,000 expended on their sitting allowance.
According to the aggrieved lecturers, the inability of the council to finalise and promulgate the statutes for the university drafted in 2013/2014 has contributed to arbitrary decisions by parallel authorities and is negatively affecting the progress of the institution.
Inside sources say the CC rejected the draft statutes because he was influenced by the PRO VC because certain provisions of the statutes do not favour him (PRO VC). According to the lecturers, this is a drain on the university coffers hence their decision to petition the minister to intervene.
Another worry of the lecturers is that there is a strain relationship between the CC and the VC to the extent that they are not on talking terms.