The 'Sevua Report' on the long standing PNG University of Technology issue

PNGBlogs Exclusive "THE SEVUA REPORT" - Dr Albert Schram’s Innocence Is Confirmed
By NATIONAL WHISTLE-BLOWER

“We therefore find that in all circumstances Dr Schram was wrongfully terminated from employment as Vice Chancellor of the University of Technology”. The statement above represents the final conclusion of the Sevua report’s investigation of the former Unitech Council’s allegations against Dr Albert Schram. 

The 2012-2013 campaign against Dr Schram is repulsive to any academic community and would not be tolerated in any civil society. The government’s tendency to fabricate charges to deport unwanted non-citizens extends well beyond Dr Schram (also used with SDP media writer Mark Davies, the story reported earlier in PNGBlogs.com). 

The PNG government’s current expulsion without a convincing reason of non-citizens who it views as being a threat violates the basic human rights guaranteed in the PNG constitution (which extends to non-citizens as well as citizens), is unbecoming of any nation that claims to be civilised, and casts a shadow of shame upon the country.

The Sevua investigation Terms of Reference were originally constructed with the input of former Uni-tech Pro Chancellor Ralph Saulep (principal foe of Dr Schram and implicated in the attempt to terminate him without cause). Five of the 6 TORs focus only on Dr Schram. This was a purposeful attempt by Ralph Saulep, approved by Peter O’Neill and then-HERST Minister David Arore, to create a one-sided investigation that would destroy the Vice Chancellor. Only through Saulep’s sloppy wording of TOR item #6 did retired Judge Mark Sevua find the open door to examine all sides of the issue, allowing him to produce a remarkably objective report. 

If the truth be known, Philip Stagg, Ralph Saulep and later Minister Arore, were themselves unwitting pawns of a vindictive payback campaign against Vice Chancellor Schram. This campaign was carried out by terminated Uni-Tech Head of Department of Electrical Engineering, Narayan Gehlot. Two months after Schram took up his post, Stagg, Saulep and then-Registrar Alan Sako were determined to get rid of him. Their initial attempts were repulsed. 

Then came ammunition in the form of Gehlot’s trumped up charges against Shram. He presented his ‘evidence’ to Stagg, Saulep, and later at a special presentation, to Minister David Arore who were all suckered in to believing Gehlot’s ‘evidence’, being that they all wanted to see Schram removed from his post. Early on, and later confirmed by the Sevua investigation team, Gehlot’s arguments do not stand the test of critical analysis. Yet armed with Gehlot’s ‘evidence’, Stagg, Saulep and Arore convinced O’Neill to establish the Sevua investigation, assuming that this ‘evidence’ could become the core of the report and provide the final nail in the coffin of Albert Schram. 

The strategy backfired on the weakness of the ‘evidence’, compounded by the sloppy wording of TOR #6, which permitted a flood of evidence against the former Unitech Council that proved embarrassing to Peter O’Neill, as well as Stagg, Saulep and Arore. That is why the Sevua report has been suppressed ever since Judge Sevua handed it to Minister David Arore in May 2013. 

It is interesting to note that Narayan Gehlot’s campaign against Schram had a second component as well. This was in the form of a formal complaint filed with the Department of Foreign Affairs that petitioned the government to declare Schram an undesirable alien. Gehlot’s work resulted in the travel ban (but not the work visa cancelling) of the Vice Chancellor which prevented him from entering PNG from an overseas trip in December 2012. 

Despite the embarrassment caused to the government and damage to PNG’s international reputation, today Narayan Gehlot remains in PNG, employed by the PNG government as a consultant to PNG Power. His continued presence is a testimony to the corruption of Peter O’Neill and his government, as well as the inability of high level officials to distinguish fact from fiction.