“commission” was omitted and proposes its insertion.
7.9 Accounts and Audit, clause 31
Clause 31 (1) provides that the Council shall keep books of accounts and proper records in relation to them and the accounts books and records shall be in a form approved by the Auditor-General.
In practice however, the Council does not keep the books and other records by itself. They are normally kept by the finance officer and his staff.
To this end, the Committee proposes an amendment to reflect this reality.
7 . 1 0 R e l a t i o n s h i p w i t h o t h e r Institutions
Clause 35 provides that the Council of the Polytechnic shall in the performance of its functions collaborate with the university to which it is affiliated, the National Council for Tertiary Education and any other private or public institution that the Council considers necessary.
The Committee considers this objective laudable but is of the view that since it has already proposed that the Polytechnic should not necessarily be affiliated to the universities; there would be inconsistencies if the above clause is not revised. The Committee therefore proposes revision to subclause (a) to read as follows:
“(a) other tertiary education institutions”.
7.11 Interpretation
The Committee also observed an error under the provision for interpretation as the “National Accreditation Board Law 1993 (PNDCL 317)” was wrongly stated as “National Accreditation Board Law,
1992 (PNDC 321)”. It therefore proposes a correction to rectify the anomaly.
7 . 1 2 Tr a n s f e r o f a s s e t s a n d liabilities, clause 39 (1)
The Committee noted that subclause (1) as provided in the Bill is ambiguous and could be abused. To avoid any ambiguity therefore, a different rendition for clause 39 on transfer of assets and liabilities is proposed as follows:
(a) The deletion of subclause (1) of clause 39,
(b) The insertion on line 1 of subclause (2), after the word “to” of the following words:
“the directions in writing of the Minister”.
The new subclause (1) of clause 39 should therefore read as follows:
“(1) Subject to the directions in writing of the Minister, the assets, rights and properties held by or on behalf of or for the purposes of a polytechnic in existence immediately before the commencement of this Act and the persons employed for that polytechnic are by this section transferred to the respective polytechnics established under this Act”.
8.0 Amendments Proposed
In the light of the above observations, the Committee proposes the following amendments. The list includes corrections made to typographical errors, omissions as well as redraft of some of the Clauses to give clarity to the provisions.
1. Page 3 clause 1, after subclause (2), add a new subclause (3) as follows:
(3) Each polytechnic shall be a corporate body with perpetual succession, a
common seal and may sue or be sued in its own name.
2. Page 3 clause 2 (1), delete the word “university” after accredited and insert the words “relevant tertiary institution”.
3. Page 3 clause 2 (2), after the existing, delete the word “university” and insert the phrase “relevant tertiary institu- tion”.
4. Page 4 clause 6 (a),
i. line 2, after Council, delete “with” and insert the phrase “provided that the programme is approved by the National Council for Tertiary Education, accredited by” and
ii. line 3, before “the” insert “mode- rated by”.
5. Page 4, clause 6 (b),
a. line 1, after “award”, insert “technology-based”; and
b. line 1, after “degrees” insert the following: “approved by the National Council for Tertiary Education and accredited by the National Accreditation Board”.
6. Page 4, clause 7(1), after subclause (b), delete all and insert the follo- wing as new subclause:
“ ( c ) o n e r e p r e s e n t a t i v e of the Teacher s and Educat iona l Workers Union,
( d ) o n e r e p r e s e n t a t i v e o f t h e P o l y t e c h n i c
