‘Exercise moral standards in execution of project’
The Fifth Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE) Project has ended in Accra with a call on managers of the project to exercise high moral standards in its execution.
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The Team Leader for the ACE Project, Mr Andreas Blom, who made the call, said the secretariat had been told by informants and whistleblowers about some misdeeds by some managers of the project.
“We do get on our corruption hotline where some whistleblowers call in to inform us of incorrect things that take place. So, it is occurring; it is not a theoretical thing,” he said.
Practices
Mr Blom therefore urged the various centre leaders and managers to ensure that such alleged corrupt acts were avoided so that “these monies do not go into pockets that they should not go into”.
He claimed further that “kickbacks on contracts, price inflation, collusion between bidders, use of substandard materials, fake travel documents and hiring of family members as consultants are common practices”.
The team leader, therefore, advised the managers to be diligent in the execution of the project and urged them to be “clean” and follow clear implementation guidelines.
Roles
Mr Blom acknowledged the critical role centre leaders and all stakeholders played in the execution of the project, stressing, “You are the ones that are driving each of these centres. We count on you and we stand by you.”
He commended the organisers of the workshop for the excellent work done and was hopeful that participants had networked and shared experiences and good practices that would help in the successful implementation of the project.
Information
A Senior Education Specialist of the World Bank, Mrs Eunice Ackwerh, entreated the managers to make all relevant information on their work public and also share their experiences.
Mrs Ackwerh noted that the presence of the vice chancellors from the various centres had deepened the ownership that the universities had for the project.
Beyond the international accreditation, she challenged the managers to consider building an African accreditation that could be subscribed by the continent’s university standards.
Workshop
The workshop was jointly coordinated by the Association of Africa Universities (AAU) and the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE).
Topics discussed included: “ACE good practices and areas for improvement,” “Sustainability of the ACE Project”, “Institutional commitment to the ACE Project,” and “Promoting university-industry linkages.”
There was a plenary presentation and discussion on revenue generation.
The next workshop would be hosted by Burkina Faso.
Africa Centres of Excellence
The ACE Project is a World Bank-sponsored initiative aimed at promoting regional specialisation in fields such as science, technology, engineering, mathematics, earth and agriculture that address regional development challenges and facilitate the delivery of high-quality training and applied research, and meeting the skills demand of the regional labour market.
The project seeks, among others, to strengthen the capacity of 22 competitively selected institutions as centres of excellence that would deliver regional and quality training and applied research in partnership with regional and international academic institutions and industry-related organisations.
Nine countries in West and Central Africa run the 22 ACEs. Out of the 22 ACEs, Ghana has three. Each of the 22 centres has been allocated $8 million.