The Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA) has raised concerns about the integrity of examinations being conducted at some public universities during its ongoing strike, arguing that established administrative and academic procedures may not have been followed.

GAUA National President Kwaku Karikari Amoah said university examinations involve several administrative, financial, procurement, auditing, academic and information technology processes that require the participation of senior university administrators.

He warned that where those procedures are bypassed, the validity and credibility of examinations could be called into question.

“The university is governed by policies,” Amoah said in an interview on the Asaase Breakfast Show.

He said public universities were established by Acts of Parliament and operated under statutes and internal policies that assigned specific responsibilities to various officers.

According to him, directors responsible for academic and student affairs ordinarily coordinate examinations, including communicating examination procedures and overseeing the procurement of examination materials.

He said financial requests for items such as answer booklets, printing materials and other examination requirements would normally pass through the appropriate administrative and finance structures.

Internal auditors would also be expected to scrutinise expenditure and procurement, while works departments would assist with preparing examination venues and related arrangements.

“If these procedures are not done to the satisfaction of the examination officer, the director of academic and student affairs, when the examination is conducted, then the examination is suspect,” he said.

Amoah said the potential problems did not end with the conduct of examinations.

After examinations, he said, scripts must be released for marking and results processed through university information technology systems before being considered by academic boards.

He said senior administrators were involved at several stages of that process.

“If we don’t go through the right processes to conduct exams, how can the director of academic affairs use the results of the examination that was done wrongly?” he asked.

He said academic boards ultimately rely on properly processed examination results when determining which students should graduate or progress to the next level of their programmes.

“If the procedure is faulty, if the procedure is wrong, if the procedure is not assured to us, the established procedure, well, the integrity of the exam is suspect,” he said.

Amoah said individual universities had raised their concerns with their managements, adding that university authorities could face challenges from students if examination results or certificates were subsequently disputed.

“All right, Reverend, we’re wrapping up,” the interviewer said, before Mr Amoah responded that students could potentially challenge universities if their results or certificates were called into question.

Amoah also dismissed a directive from the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) reportedly asking senior management officials at public universities to return to work on the grounds that they were not eligible to participate in industrial action.

He argued that GTEC’s interpretation of the labour law was incorrect, saying universities did not fall within the category of essential services referred to in the law.

He described the directive as an attempt to put pressure on GAUA members and said the association had raised the matter with the Education Minister.

Amoah said the official who signed the directive was present at the meeting with the minister and that the minister had spoken to him about the matter.

GAUA, he said, expected the directive to be withdrawn.

The association is now consulting its members on whether to suspend its strike following the government’s commitments. Mr Amoah said the association expected to submit a written response to the Education Minister detailing the outstanding issues, timelines and agreed actions.