University administrators faults gov’t for not engaging them on book & research allowance scraping

Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA) has expressed concerns about government intention to scrap Book and Research Allowances meant for senior members of public universities and polytechnics.
GAUA said they have been following the current development on tertiary education in Ghana with keen interest and does not believe that scrapping book and research allowance and replace it with national research fund.
The university administrators say they are not against the establishment of national research fund but it is not appropriate to replace with any fund.
GAUA which is one of the beneficiaries of the allowance, government has not yet communicated its intention of scrapping the allowance.
A statement signed by the national president of GAUA, Kwame Ohene-Apofo and copied to Zaa News said, GAUA is not happy about government failure to engage the beneficiaries of the allowance on the issue concerning it abolishment before announcing its decision.
GAUA said since book and research allowance is tied to professional and administrative senior members condition of service and was introduced through collective bargaining by government and public universities management, its abolition cannot be a unilateral decision.
GAUA warns government of the implications on overall conditions of service of the university senior members and UTAG of its actions.
GAUA says they are disappointed at government for unilateral variation of the conditions of service and finds government intention as acting in bad faith.
The Ghana Association of University Administrators also dismisses what they described as misconception about insufficient public knowledge and understanding of the university professionals and senior members.
The public the statement said has misconception that the work of the professionals and administrative senior members is only to perform administrative functions as an administrator. On the contrary, it said GAUA member’s functions are multifaceted.
Their functions include; monitory, coaching, consulting and provision of extension services to the wider community, administration of courses among others.
For the interest of peace and harmony in the tertiary educational system in Ghana; GAUA has come out with two recommendations for government to consider.
• Government must honour the payment of the Book and Research allowance for the 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 academic years.
• Government should engage stakeholders in the formulation of modalities for administering the national research fund.
By; Ibrahim Dikunyalala/zaaradio.com