A Cape Coast High Court presided over by Her Ladyship Patience Mills-Tetteh has restrained the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba, from forcing its Registrar to go on ‘accumulated leave.’
The Vice-Chancellor, in a letter, directed the Registrar to go on his accumulated leave, a directive the Registrar of the University vehemently contested.
Even though the Human Resource Division of the University wrote back to the Vice-Chancellor of the University indicating that the Registrar had accumulated no leave, the university authorities went ahead and appointed Mrs. Wilhelmina Tete-Mensah in an acting capacity.
The Registrar, who had refused to proceed on leave, was subsequently locked out of his office and had to operate from outside.
The Minister of Education, through the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), also directed the management of the University of Education, Winneba, to pull the brakes on the directive to the Registrar of the University to take his accumulated leave.
According to Yaw Osei Adutwum, although he appreciated the prerogative of the management of the university to decide when its staff must take their annual leave, a perception of unfair treatment had been raised, hence, his intervention.
Tension began to rise at the university to the point that the Efutu Municipal Assembly also wrote a letter to the Registrar to go on the purported leave to reduce the tension simmering there.
The Substantive Registrar, Paul Osei Barima, then sought an injunction at the Cape Coast High Court to restrain the Vice-Chancellor from embarking on such an enterprise.
Mr. Osei Barima sought a declaration that the Chairman of the Governing Council of UEW, acting in his individual capacity, cannot order the plaintiff to proceed on leave or otherwise; a declaration that the Vice-Chancellor cannot order the plaintiff to proceed on leave based on the directive of the Chairman of the Governing Council acting in his own individual capacity; and a declaration by the Court that the Vice-Chancellor of UEW cannot appoint an acting Registrar based on the Chairman of the Governing Council’s directive when the plaintiff is still at post and has not proceeded on a purported accumulated leave.
The Registrar also sought a declaration that the letter appointing Mrs. Wilhelmina Tete-Mensah as an acting Registrar should be declared null and void and of no legal effect since the VC cannot make such an appointment when the substantive Registrar has not proceeded on any purported leave and is still at post; and an injunction to restrain the University from appointing anybody to an acting position as Registrar since the substantive Registrar has not proceeded on any leave and is still at post until the final determination of the suit.
The defendant, the University of Education, Winneba, first raised jurisdictional issues, but the court shot it down and stated that it had jurisdiction to entertain the matter before it, and slated the ruling for July 29th, 2022.
The Court presided over by Her Ladyship Patience Mills-Tetteh restrained the University from forcing the registrar to proceed on leave with immediate effect. The Registrar, Paul Osei Barima, is expected back in office on Monday after being locked out of his office for nearly three months.
