Committee Calls For Appointment Of Rector For Wa Poly

The three-member Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Wa Polytechnic has finished its work and submitted its reports to government, recommending three persons for appointment.

The IMC took appropriate steps using the process to recommend the three persons for appointment as Rector, Registrar and Finance Officer.

Recommendation for the appointments of the three persons, was done following laid down procedures, using eminent educationists, professors and lecturers to conduct the interviews and do analysis for the positions to select qualify persons for the IMC to forward the names to the National Council for Tertiary Education and the Ministry of Education.

Professor Amin Alhassan, Chairman of the IMC, was briefing the Ghana News Agency on the report, said the IMC has taken the necessary steps to restore to normalcy the governance and management of the polytechnic and proposed a roadmap to conversion readiness for the polytechnic.

The IMC has also worked to put in place actions to ensure effective operations of the Polytechnic for the benefit of the staff, students and conversion process of the polytechnic into a technical university.

“We have been able to resolve all the protracted problems in the management and administration of the polytechnic. The stage is now set for the restoration to conduct administrative businesses of the polytechnic. What went wrong has been corrected and the polytechnic will now function and meet the criteria to be upgraded to a technical university,” he said.

Professor Alhassan said IMC had worked to improve the staffing positions of lecturers, provided promotions to junior and senior staff, improved morale of students, paved way for the smooth implementation of development projects and enhanced efforts at preparing the polytechnic for conversion to a technical university.

“We have also considered other related matters including the introduction of eight programmes which have been accredited and the establishment of committees to address weaknesses which affected the polytechnic from being upgraded into a technical university,” he said.

Professor Alhassan said Academic Planning and Quality Assurance Unit have been established to safeguard the quality of teaching and learning at the polytechnic.

Reacting to public outcry that the Wa Polytechnic was being treated with lukewarm attitude on the part of political stakeholders in the region and government, Professor Alhassan said the Wa Polytechnic was well-endowed and provided with all the necessary resources and infrastructure development.

He said internal wrangling among members caused the woes of the polytechnic and that had nothing to with government or political stakeholders.

“Management excesses caused protracted problems for the polytechnic. There are no political dimensions to the issues in polytechnic but it is that the polytechnic took advantage of self-governance to destroy itself.

“It is the simple abuse of privileges of self-governance which led to the breakdown of internal mechanisms leading to crisis which affected the completion of projects and in some cases, completed projects could not be handed over and let nobody read political meanings or conjectures into it”, he explained.

The IMC was sworn into office to replace the 13-member Council which was dissolved in April 2016 by President John Dramani Mahama.

The IMC has Professor Amin Alhassan as its Chairman, Mr. Chris Arcmann Ackummey, Member and Mrs Mary Abena Agyepong as its Secretary.

The Committee was expected to exercise powers of the Polytechnic Council as well as those of the Rector as provided for in the Polytechnic Act, 2007, Act 745.

The IMC was also tasked to accomplish its mandate within four months, would also take charge of the day-to-day management of the polytechnic until a substantive reconstituted Council of the Polytechnic was appointed.

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(Via: NewsGhana)