– Hon. Joseph William Lamin
The Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Technical and Higher Education (PCTHE), Hon. Joseph William Lamin of the ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) representing Bo District, Wednesday 29th January 2025, informed the Vice Chancellor and Principal of the Milton Margai Technical University (MMTU) that the engagement with the administration of the institution was an instruction from the Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Solomon Sengepoh Thomas.
The engagement took place at Committee Room Number 1, Parliament Building, Tower Hill in Freetown.
He recalled that the Speaker instructed the Committee to investigate the case of some lecturers of the MMTU who complained that they have been unlawfully marginalized and left out the recent recruitment process for the new university status.
Hon. Joseph William Lamin also revealed that among some of the issues raised by the lecturers include the alleged clandestine conduct of interviews for new lectures and members of staff for the new university status which they claimed were not transparent and full of irregularities, and that the Committee would engage other institutions under its purview in friendly discussions for the benefit of all.
Some of the issues raised by members of the Committee were: who conducted the interviews; how many lecturers/other staff members were involved; how many interviews were conducted and how many applicants have been served with appointment letters?
The Vice Chancellor and Principal of MMTU, Dr. Philip John Kanu informed the Committee that letters were sent to all lecturers/staff that they must reapply as the MMTU has been transformed from a polytechnic to university for which they must reapply to meet the demands of the new status, that the Tertiary Education Commission, the University of Sierra Leone and Njala University among others participated in the interviews asserting that some members of staff were not qualified for the areas they applied for.
He also commended members of the Committee for been bold to say the truth in relation to the Brookfields Hotel land belonging to the institution noting that the year 2024 was turbulent for the MMTU adding that the hotel and the MMTU should coexist peacefully.
According to Dr. Kanu, recent media reports on the Brookfields Hotel land issue is a provocation that resulted to the students wanting to protest but that the administration prevailed on them to hold the peace and appealed to the Committee to officially submit to the institution the documents, other reports and findings related the land issue.
The Vice Chancellor and Principal also disclosed that since 2022 to date he has been investigated eight times by the Anti-Corruption Commission, the Office of the Ombudsman, the Legal Aid Board and other institutions but that he has never been found reiterating that no clandestine interviews were conducted.
He also enlightened that vacancy announcements, approved by the University Court, were advertised for three months in 20 local newspapers as well as the MMTU website, that the positions were re-advertised in 2024 informing that all universities operate on the same pedigree, that no appointment letters would be issued without the approval of the University Court which term ended past September.
Dr. Kanu furthered that the qualifications for lecturers in a university include Professors, Associate Professors and Masters degree holders, revealed that the institution has made efforts to capacitate lecturers to meet the new university status as well as realign them for retention but noted that the MMTU is experiencing resistance to change underscoring that a good number of the lecturers are reluctant to upgrade themselves in spite of the fact that some of them have been offered scholarships with full pay.
He also stated that they hold monthly staff meetings and assured that those with genuine cases would be looked into.
Members of the Committee, including the Chairman and Hon. Abdul Karim Kamara of the opposition All Peoples Congress party representing Kambia District, appealed to the MMTU administration to settle the matter amicably as a family.
Other issues highlighted were that 156 applicants applied for the new university status and that the Ministry of Finance has highlighted that the MMTU payroll is over-bloated.
