Three Sunyani-based development associations have petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) over ‘certain infractions and discriminatory acts’ on the recent appointment of Mr Sylvester Donrkor, new Principal of the Berekum College Education in the Bono Region.
The leadership of the associations, the Sunyani Youth Development Association (SYDA), Sunyani for Development (SFD), and Bonoman Institute (BI), said they were worried about “perceived and apparent corruption and discriminatory behaviours in the entire appointment process.”
They, therefore, called on the CHRAJ to expedite action to investigate the College’s Governing Council in the appointment processes “for the right thing to be done”.
Addressing a news conference in Sunyani, Mr. Atta Akoto Senior, the President of SYDA, said the associations suspected “something fishy” in the appointment process which led to the “discrimination and unfair treatment against Dr. Mrs. Vida Korang, one of the applicants and a Senior Lecturer at the Catholic University of Ghana”, contrary to provisions in Articles 17 and 296 of the 1992 constitution.
“The alleged discrimination against Dr. Korang is affront to the fairness and a heavy dent on the nation’s quest to achieve the Gender Equality (goal five) and Inequality (goal 10) of the Sustainable Development Goals, he said.
A copy of the petition made available to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) claimed the actions of the Search Committee further breached some relevant provisions of the Ghana’s 1992 Fourth Republican constitution in pursuant to Article 17(1, 2, 3,) and portions of Article 296.
Copies of the petition jointly signed by Messrs. Atta Akoto Senior, Nana Sakyi Akomea, the Secretary, SYDA and Ansu Gyeabour, Public Relations Officer of the BI were delivered to the College’s Governing Council, the Chief Justice, Women Caucus in Parliament, Bono Regional House of Chiefs and the National Investigations Bureau.
It explained “somewhere December 2022, the position of the Principal became vacant and the college through its constituted Search Committee advertised the vacant position for qualified applicants.”
The petition said, “it is on record that, at the end of the interview process, the Search Committee approved and presented two of the applicants, Dr. Korang and Mr Sylvester Donkor and these are copious statements from the Council’s Chairman, Mr Kwadwo Adjei-Darko, a former Minister of State”.
“According to our checks, Dr. Korang, the only female had the highest score of 71 marks as compared to the 70 marks scored by Mr Donkor, and we learnt the latter was chosen on the grounds that Dr. Korang is coming from a private university and that it would be difficult to mechanize her onto the Controller and Accountant General’s payroll system,” it added.
“It is also unfortunate to gather that the Council’s decision was apparently based on subjective test”, the petition added, and therefore called on the CHRAJ and other relevant state and non-state institutions to intervene.
“We, therefore, consider this act as discriminatory, unfair treatment, selective administrative injustice, inequitable, abuse of power, inconsistent and in contravention to the basic tenet of the laws of Ghana,” the petition stated.
GNA
