UTAG describes Gyampo, Butakor suspension as ‘relatively harsh’

The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) has described the suspension of Professor Ransford Gyampo and Dr. Paul Butakor by the University of Ghana as “relatively harsh”

Both lecturers have been hit with a six and four months suspension respectively without pay after being implicated in the BBC's Sex For Grade's documentary. The two suspended lecturers will also undergo appropriate training on the University's sexual harassment and misconduct policy.

UTAG in a statement said they had proposed softer sanctions for the two University of Ghana lecturers.

Before the suspension, the two had been interdicted in October 2019, right after the BBC report.

UTAG said it felt the “period of their interdiction and the financial implications of the interdiction constituted sufficient punishment and expected the recommendations of the disciplinary committee to have taken cognizance of that.”

The association, in turn, said it had recommended “a suspension with retrospective effect from the time of their interdiction, requiring them to refund financial remuneration received during the period of their interdiction to lessen the sum of the economic and emotional impact that his had on them.”

UTAG also questioned the need for the sexual harassment training and annual assessments for five years because “they were not found complicit in any way of a case of sexual misconduct.”

It advised, moving forward, the university should find “a fair balance between its desire to protect its name and image on the one hand, and the welfare/wellbeing of members of the university community who make up the university on the other hand.”

Prof Gyampo and Dr Butakor denied the allegations made against them last year in BBC Africa Eye’s sex-for-grades documentary.

They were among four academics secretly filmed as part of a year-long investigation.

BBC journalists posed as prospective students to expose sexual harassment and misconduct at both the University of Ghana and the University of Lagos.

Prof Gyampo and Dr Butakor were said to have breached the university’s code of conduct rules.

The lecturers are to undergo training on the university’s sexual harassment and misconduct policy.

The university said they would only resume work only after a positive assessment.

Source: ghanaweb.com