NORPRA wants B’Poly Rector removed over alleged malfeasance

… But Prof. Tanzubil says it is acting out of ignorance

Members of the Northern Patriots in Research and
Advocacy (NORPRA), Bolgatanga-based pressure group, are demanding the immediate removal of the Rector of the Bolgatanga Polytechnic, Prof. Paul B. Tanzubil, following allegations that he was engaging in acts that were very detrimental to the growth and development of the polytechnic.

According to NORPRA, the Rector was institutionalising and formulating self-pleasing policies, where the recruitment and promotion of less qualified, and in some cases certificate-less, officers are preferred to well-qualified and very competent staff.

In a release endorsed by the Upper East Regional Chairman of NORPRA, Mr. Moses Anyoka, he argued that there was substantial evidence to prove that the head of the institution has well coordinated plans to marginalise and deny well-qualified and competent staff their rightful places, appointments, and the right to participate in internal interviews and promotion arrangements.

The group stressed that what was equally worrying, was the Rector’s unilateral decision to purchase a parcel of land with the polytechnic’s resources at a very far and different location, without the approval of the polytechnic’s Council.

“NORPRA is privy to very reliable information that at the time of acquiring the land at a location different and far from Sumbrungu campus, there was a piece of land readily available to the polytechnic on the same campus, which he refused to acquire, for reasons beyond human guess and imagination,” Mr. Anyoka alleged.

The pressure group is also accusing Prof. Tanzubil of further dipping his hands into the accounts of the polytechnic, and buying a saloon car for his personal comfort, in an institution that faces a myriad of problems, including infrastructural development challenges.

According to Anyoka, this very act in particular, had caused serious irreparable damage to many, disadvantaged, and worsened the economic plight of several other staff, as it led to many of them not getting their arrears paid.

Mr. Anyoka and his pressure group noted that there was growing dissatisfaction among many of the polytechnic workers about the leadership style of the Rector, and that his continuous stay in office would not only lead to a big compromise to the quality of academic work and general out put, but would also greatly set the clock of progress and general development of the institution backwards.

According to NORPRA, the era where public officers ran public institutions as if they were their personal property was over, therefore, the ordinary man will no longer sit on the fence and allow public officials to run public institutions in a way that pleases them, to the detriment of the public institution.

NORPA members are therefore calling on the government, particularly the Ministry of Education, to, as a matter of urgency, remove Prof. Tanzubil from office, because his actions were seriously threatening the smooth development of the institution.
This way, the Polytechnic would be saved from collapse.
In an interview with this reporter, Prof. Tanzubil doubted the credibility of NORPRA, as he wondered if it was a recognised group that had the moral potent to rush to the press when it did not have credible evidence to back its claims.

According to the Rector, he found the allegations laughable, explaining that when he took over office as rRector of the Polytechnic in 2006, there were only four qualified lectures.

Prof. Tanzubil said he had been able to raise the number of lecturers from the four, to over fifty-four as of today, and these lecturers are either professionally qualified, or are holders of Master’s degrees in their fields of study.

According to him, when he took over, he was told that there was no way the polytechnic could get people with Master’s Degrees to lecture there.

He said, he quickly put in place a national policy of nationwide recruitment, which was published in the newspapers and announced on radio stations, asking for applications from people who were desirous to come and lecture in the polytechnic.

He explained that since he took over office, the polytechnic had used its Appointment and Promotion Board for all the recruitments and promotions of staff.

During recruitments and promotions, the Rector said, he makes sure that all panelists who sit on the board score the applicants, and sign against their names as panelists.

According to him, anybody to be appointed or promoted must have an external assessor to recommend them, in addition to recommendations from the head of department.

After this, the applicants are shortlisted, and the Registrar calls for an interview, in which the marks scored by the applicants are used.

The head of departments, the Dean of the Polytechnic, and other board members, then decide, based on the marks scored by each applicant, to determine who is qualified to be recruited or promoted.

Prof. Tanzubil said nobody was employed by the institution without going through these procedures, thus NORPROA’s claim that he was institutionalising and formulating self-pleasing policies, where the recruitment and promotion of less qualified and in some cases certificate-less officers are preferred to well-qualified and very competent staff, was irresponsible.

He questioned how somebody without a certificate could be picked as a lecturer in a polytechnic, and added that the polytechnic had also supported some junior lecturers to further their education, who were back serving the polytechnic.

Touching on the land issue, the Rector said the institution was doing ecological agriculture and agriculture engineering, which courses require farmlands to do practicals.

The Polytechnic also had advance plans do Bachelor of Technology in Ecological Agriculture, and therefore needed a model farm to run these programmes.

According to the Rector, he had appealed to the Ministry of Agriculture, which was prepared to help the institution develop the area, and provide a tractor and other farm equipment.
He contended that NORPRA’s claim that he had acquired land outside the campus of the polytechnic, instead of the one nearby, was done out of ignorance, because that land was not for building purposes, but for agricultural purposes.

The Professor in Agriculture stressed that the land in question, which is at Balungu, was chosen by Department of Ecological Agriculture of the polytechnic for practical agriculture, and not him, adding that the land near the campus, over which NORPRA is raising eyebrows, had also been acquired by the institution.

Prof. Tanzubil further told The Chronicle that when he took over in 2006, the polytechnic had only 2 accredited courses, but the number had now increased to nine.

“So, if people think they are interested in the development of the polytechnic than I do, then it is unfortunate,” he added.

Reacting to the saloon car allegation, the Rector said he was entitled by his condition of service to have a saloon car, and further said when he took over, he could have bought the saloon car, but he saw that the condition of the polytechnic was precarious, so he used the money to develop it, and only bought the saloon car two years ago, after the then Council Chairman, Prof. A. A. Alemna, had approved it.

According to him, when he resumed office as Rector, the polytechnic had no more than ¢20 million (old Cedis), making it difficult to pay workers.

The polytechnic also had only one working pick up vehicle, but today, through prudent management, the polytechnic had reached a stage where it could pay staff for three months without money from Accra.
Prof. Tanzubil, therefore, dismissed the allegation that he dipped his hands into the accounts of the polytechnic to buy a saloon car for his comfort in an institution that faces a myriad of problems, including infrastructural development challenges.

He also said the claim that there was growing discontent was unfounded, contending that if there was any discontent, then it was from an ethnic clique.

“I want to stress that the Bolga Polytechnic is not an ethnic polytechnic. Bolga Polytechnic is a regional polytechnic, national polytechnic, and I don’t know whether NORPRA represents the whole Upper East Region? I am worried by attempts to make Bolga Polytechnic synonymous with a particular ethnic group. And I have refused that. I am prepared to even leave the Polytechnic, if it means succumbing to the machinations of an ethnic group,” he stated.

He added that the corporate image of the polytechnic was more relevant than an ethnic group.

The Rector described NORPRA’s demand for his removal, as an act of ignorance, blackmail, and malice, and that he was committed to the development of the Polytechnic more than NORPRA members, who have no idea about the governing structure of the institution.

Prof. Tanzubil, who wanted to prove he was on top of his administration, produced a copy of his four year stewardship to this reporter, which he recently submitted to the Polytechnic Council. It is titled; “My Four Years at Bolgatanga Polytechnic.”

Some of the areas captured in that document include governance and quality control, academic programmes, outstanding issues, student enrolment, teaching and learning quality, research and outreach programmes, financial situation, human resource development, infrastructural development, challenges and way forward.

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