Someone investigate OHE Director General, David ‘Korap’ Kavanamur’s so called Executive ‘Exotic’ Branch!
By RAGA LOHIA
Office of Higher Education (OHE) is becoming a “rosy garden’. Although having a few positive triumphs like completing the quality assessments of the six universities, awarding accreditation to five new institutions of higher education and having a new legislation that endorses the Office to become a Department, more thorns are growing behind closed doors at Mutual Rumana Building.
Following from an earlier blog in March 2014 titled, “The Curious ways of OHE Director General David Kavanamur” this adds more smell to David’s “rosy garden.” Most of the operational decisions and changes in policy directives of the OHE are evolving from the so-called Executive “Exotic” Branch instead of Senior ranking directors and branch heads. The name sounds right but who is in this ‘Executive Exotic Branch’? The Exotic branch is not made of all senior officers like Directors and Assistant Directors but consists of; three secretaries- which is a waste of both human resources and financial resources; one executive officer – who is a mere victim of last minute work and unbudgeted activities; one sector coordinator - who’s title is nearly always changing every month and is the suspected “Corporate Wife” of David; and one internal auditor - who is the only male officer in the Exotic Branch.
OHE is wasting human and financial resources. David, how many secretaries do you really need? Not to mention, one is a church friend, Mrs Sharon Napoleon, who recently got recruited as a casual secretary for the Western Pacific University project by the Prime Minister, Honourable Peter O’Neil. Sharon in less than a year just got confirmed and promoted as a permanent staff, to be the Executive Secretary for the Director General’s Office. Sharon was cleverly moved under Kavanamur’s “Job Rotation” strategy, and eventually in less than a month replaced Mrs. Rebecca Varage. Rebecca is a long serving staff with OHE, who has a vast experience in executive secretarial duties under Kereme and Tagis regimes. The other secretary, Mrs Jenny Raga, is a casual staff, initially recruited for data entry by OHEs Scholarship Branch. Jenny is a grade ten leaver with a very low Grade Point Average, and worse off, has no secretarial training! Although a casual, she is enjoying benefits of a permanent staff, like travelling for senior meetings and workshops and is additionally given travel and incidental allowances. Jenny works late hours, over the weekends consecutively, and usually is early at work by 7am. David, does she have a key to second floor of Mutual Rumana Building? Why does she have the benefit of holding an office key, when other senior officers don’t share this benefit? Has anyone in the OHE asked, why Jenny has to work such odd hours, when she is not a permanent staff yet nor is she a technical staff who writes policy papers and has strict timelines of delivering papers? What is OHEs Human Resource section doing about this? Is she being mentored while performing her role? As a casual staff in the Executive Branch, she obviously has access to highly classified information that proceeds to and from the Director General’s Office, but David… does she understand ‘confidentiality of information’? The third secretary, Rebecca, is still technically located within the Executive Branch, and is still relied upon to deliver secretarial duties for the branch. Why has Rebecca who has a wealth of experience been sidelined? Generally, who does what? Is OHEs Human Resource section asleep or are they being undermined? Is there a duplication of roles between the three secretaries? David, you are wasting precious resources, like other departmental heads, your Executive ‘Exotic’ Branch should consist of one secretary, one executive officer, and optionally one driver.
The Sector Coordinator, Ms. Lisa Larry an ex-UPNG graduate in Sociology and Anthropology is acting as the most senior advisor and executive officer to David. David, it is evident that Lisa has a more intimate connection with you…oh my…do not try to hide it anymore, even stakeholders of the sector and your university colleagues are asking about this special relationship. Lisa does grammatical editing of internal minutes and memo’s to the Director General, usually misinterprets letters for stakeholders, makes operational decisions in the absence of David, writes disrespectful internal emails to mainly senior officers, ill-advises David for policy and operational decisions within OHE, she determines who is moved around in David Korap Kavanamur’s ‘job rotation’ strategy, and determines operational matters of the Office. Even Divisional heads and Branch heads are required to report to Lisa! David, you must be out of your mind! What experiences and qualifications qualify Lisa to play a more superior role than them? Lisa’s role sounds like a mere ‘brief-case carrier’? Maybe because Lisa has only a first degree with no experience in policy writing and research, she is unable to produce technical papers for OHE and the Higher Education Sector. So David stop putting a mask on your Corporate Wife’s face that everything the OHE achieves is because of her hard work, when in reality..she did jack shit!! More so, Lisa has no experience in dealing with OHE’s core business, she was purely involved in one of the many reform agenda’s the previous Director General, Dr. William Tagis birthed; “the Research Science and Technology Initiative”. Lisa was never involved in activities and programs outside of RST! Everyone at OHE knows this!
David, there are many thorns growing, to help you soak up the stupidity of your actions and decision, I’ll outline to the point, more facts for readers:
Project vehicle being used for personal gain – There is a blue double cab utility the government purchased for the PNG National Open University Project. This is a high impact project and was allocated about K5 million for scoping of the project this year. Part of this funding was used to purchase a vehicle for the project, to ensure mobility. Although the OHE team responsible for the PNG NOU concept and project rollout is active, the vehicle is being used by the Exotic Branch staff, driven by David and always parked at David’s home at UPNG Fourth banner. Oh let me emphasize, the auditor of the Exotic Branch hardly gets on this vehicle but it’s the females. This vehicle was purchased for the purpose of the PNG Open University Project. This project obviously has not started off, but the vehicle is being used extensively! Careful David, you will soon face the consequences! It may be reasonable to see David and a group of females in this vehicle during public service business hours, but to see them after hours at odd places, like Waterfront and Vision City Mall is questionable. If all these ladies that are seen in this vehicle are actually staff of the Exotic Branch, then are there not drivers at the OHE, who can drop all these ladies off after official hours? Who are these ladies? Don’t they have moral obligations as women? So David, are you implying that you are also the personal driver for all these ladies at the Exotic Branch, whilst the OHE drivers are recruited to drive around all other staff other than staff from the Exotic Branch?
The Job Rotation Strategy introduced by Korap Kavanamur is becoming a sick leach. Again the name itself defines a positive energy, but at OHE, it is those staff David has familial or mutual relations with that are being rotated to higher positions, whereas some in higher positions are rotated to perform at lower positions. Common Mister Strategic Manager, where are you getting advice from? Even worse, there is no timeline to job rotations, nor is there any mechanism to measure performance of rotated staff. It looks even uglier when staff are rotated and OHEs Human Resource section does not take any action to mentor or nurture new staff who are moving into these new positions.
Bias decisions on recruitment - New graduates being recruited to work at OHE are either a graduate of his Strategic Management Program at University of PNG, a church friend from his church, spouse of a student David used to mentor at UPNG. I thought you were a genuine citizen who drove the Vision 2050 Pillar One team, who would be in the business of combating nepotism, but no…you practice NEPOTISM! OHE is now full of strategic management students, for example one is now “acting senior accountant” at OHE…oh my goodness, how did Samuel get that position? It just doesn’t make any logical sense David!
Breaking Public Service General Orders - Oh David, have you given up your teaching job at UPNG? Did you not know that you are breaking your Oath to the Government of the Day and the Public Service General Orders by holding two jobs…one at OHE and the second at UPNG? When you swore an oath to serve as the Director General of the Office of Higher Education, did you not declare that you will be FULLY SERVING in this delegated power and not alternatively as a supervisor, nor as a consultant to any other organization? Heading a public organization is a full-time job David! If you have given up your job at UPNG, why are you still being housed at UPNG’s Staff Residential area, when you are now a Public Servant? Do you still teach students at the postgraduate level? Is this not against the Public Service General Orders? You’re a Strategic Manager, so I can understand your sneaky contracts. I don’t know if anyone at Department of Personal Management has looked into this issue! David stop cheating the people of Papua New Guinea on such a fake identity!
Staff travel – is it necessary to travel over the weekend like on Saturday’s when your official meetings commence on Monday?? You are being paid travel allowances for the unnecessary days you are counting..this is daylight robbery. Public funds paying for your luxury travel to spend a weekend getaway to satisfy your own wants. Are you serving the interest of the people or yourself? Are there not other senior directors and coordinators who are competitive enough to travel and provide relevant technical advice? David, it is becoming stupidly obvious that you are continuously travelling at unnecessary times of the week or day with your Corporate Wife, Lisa Larry. Ooooops..i forgot to mention, Lisa was seen by your staff and security officers, at the Mutual Rumana Building Carpark, folding and packing clothes at the back of your blue five door (car rego: ZGP 219) for an overseas travel around June this year! How do you explain that, David!
Exempting yourself and OHE from complying with the PNG National Qualifications Framework – ensuring quality assurance in our institutions of higher education is a challenge but a very good move towards promoting quality in the sector. I admire how you are advocating on the PNG NQF and telling existing and prospective providers to comply with the PNG NQF. BUT..where does this stand when you have recruited a particular staff who’s qualification is not recognized by the OHE or CHE itself, far worse the institution this staff graduated from is still not a recognized IHE in PNG, in other words it is not quality assured nor accredited! Dr Sebastian Bagrie received his masters and doctoral degree from the much talked about ‘Jubilee Institute of Higher Learning.’ Oh I forgot to mention, he’s also a close friend of yours David! Sebastian was initially engaged for six months as a consultant for the Western Pacific University (Prime Minister’s initiative), then Sebastian was engaged to act as the Assistant Director for the Finance and Administration Branch. Sebastian is now reverted back to being engaged as a consultant. How fishy is this? Is this practice not against the Public Service General Orders?? Or are you helping your friend Sebastian gather enough money for his candidacy for 2017 National Elections? Everyone at OHE knows Dr Bagrie is intending to stand for 2017 National Elections David! Why is Sebastian still holding onto the office vehicle – ZGT 505, when he is now reverted back to being a consultant to OHE? Is OHE still paying for his travel airfares, accommodation and allowances to and from Madang on weekends?
Oh yes, additionally I found out that you even sent your Corporate Wife, Lisa to go for 6-week Diploma in Economic Policy Analysis at the National Research Institute, which was a program specifically for Economists, but somehow you managed to push her through to undertake this program. What is there no voice from the Staff Development Committee? Does it even exist? This training program was unplanned right nor was it unbudgeted for David! Again money wasted! Is this program quality assured as per the standards your officers preach about? Is it recognized by the PNG NQF? So who are you telling to comply with standards when you are ignoring them and recruiting individuals who are graduates of unrecognized institutions, far worse, you are paying for your staff to undertake unrecognized programs like six-week diplomas! Where is your standard? Which level of qualification does this program fall into? Lets see…oh yes the following week after completing the 6-week diploma program, you again sent your dearest to attend a HR training Workshop at Lamana Hotel, then the following week she attended another short term training at Crowne Plaza Hotel! Wow…OHE must have a lot to spend on her wellbeing! I forgot to mention also that all these were UNBUDGETED and UNPLANNED TRAINING PRIORITIES nor activities. What are you rushing Lisa for? Is it to make her competitive enough for a bigger position you will be giving her, under the new Department?
Do these examples tell our stakeholders of the higher education sector that you are excused from complying with the PNG NQF?
With these simple few facts and more examples that could be published, I hope that the Auditor General’s Office will audit OHEs books thoroughly because I just heard that as the budget books close this year, the leftover K101,000 is being used to fund you and your corporate wife’s travel to London in January! For what we don’t know but it sure is a high cost to government!
I will be back with more facts and photos and evidences for all these. But for now, I would like to keep my hopes that David Korap Kavanamur will be monitored and investigated!
Following from an earlier blog in March 2014 titled, “The Curious ways of OHE Director General David Kavanamur” this adds more smell to David’s “rosy garden.” Most of the operational decisions and changes in policy directives of the OHE are evolving from the so-called Executive “Exotic” Branch instead of Senior ranking directors and branch heads. The name sounds right but who is in this ‘Executive Exotic Branch’? The Exotic branch is not made of all senior officers like Directors and Assistant Directors but consists of; three secretaries- which is a waste of both human resources and financial resources; one executive officer – who is a mere victim of last minute work and unbudgeted activities; one sector coordinator - who’s title is nearly always changing every month and is the suspected “Corporate Wife” of David; and one internal auditor - who is the only male officer in the Exotic Branch.
OHE is wasting human and financial resources. David, how many secretaries do you really need? Not to mention, one is a church friend, Mrs Sharon Napoleon, who recently got recruited as a casual secretary for the Western Pacific University project by the Prime Minister, Honourable Peter O’Neil. Sharon in less than a year just got confirmed and promoted as a permanent staff, to be the Executive Secretary for the Director General’s Office. Sharon was cleverly moved under Kavanamur’s “Job Rotation” strategy, and eventually in less than a month replaced Mrs. Rebecca Varage. Rebecca is a long serving staff with OHE, who has a vast experience in executive secretarial duties under Kereme and Tagis regimes. The other secretary, Mrs Jenny Raga, is a casual staff, initially recruited for data entry by OHEs Scholarship Branch. Jenny is a grade ten leaver with a very low Grade Point Average, and worse off, has no secretarial training! Although a casual, she is enjoying benefits of a permanent staff, like travelling for senior meetings and workshops and is additionally given travel and incidental allowances. Jenny works late hours, over the weekends consecutively, and usually is early at work by 7am. David, does she have a key to second floor of Mutual Rumana Building? Why does she have the benefit of holding an office key, when other senior officers don’t share this benefit? Has anyone in the OHE asked, why Jenny has to work such odd hours, when she is not a permanent staff yet nor is she a technical staff who writes policy papers and has strict timelines of delivering papers? What is OHEs Human Resource section doing about this? Is she being mentored while performing her role? As a casual staff in the Executive Branch, she obviously has access to highly classified information that proceeds to and from the Director General’s Office, but David… does she understand ‘confidentiality of information’? The third secretary, Rebecca, is still technically located within the Executive Branch, and is still relied upon to deliver secretarial duties for the branch. Why has Rebecca who has a wealth of experience been sidelined? Generally, who does what? Is OHEs Human Resource section asleep or are they being undermined? Is there a duplication of roles between the three secretaries? David, you are wasting precious resources, like other departmental heads, your Executive ‘Exotic’ Branch should consist of one secretary, one executive officer, and optionally one driver.
The Sector Coordinator, Ms. Lisa Larry an ex-UPNG graduate in Sociology and Anthropology is acting as the most senior advisor and executive officer to David. David, it is evident that Lisa has a more intimate connection with you…oh my…do not try to hide it anymore, even stakeholders of the sector and your university colleagues are asking about this special relationship. Lisa does grammatical editing of internal minutes and memo’s to the Director General, usually misinterprets letters for stakeholders, makes operational decisions in the absence of David, writes disrespectful internal emails to mainly senior officers, ill-advises David for policy and operational decisions within OHE, she determines who is moved around in David Korap Kavanamur’s ‘job rotation’ strategy, and determines operational matters of the Office. Even Divisional heads and Branch heads are required to report to Lisa! David, you must be out of your mind! What experiences and qualifications qualify Lisa to play a more superior role than them? Lisa’s role sounds like a mere ‘brief-case carrier’? Maybe because Lisa has only a first degree with no experience in policy writing and research, she is unable to produce technical papers for OHE and the Higher Education Sector. So David stop putting a mask on your Corporate Wife’s face that everything the OHE achieves is because of her hard work, when in reality..she did jack shit!! More so, Lisa has no experience in dealing with OHE’s core business, she was purely involved in one of the many reform agenda’s the previous Director General, Dr. William Tagis birthed; “the Research Science and Technology Initiative”. Lisa was never involved in activities and programs outside of RST! Everyone at OHE knows this!
David, there are many thorns growing, to help you soak up the stupidity of your actions and decision, I’ll outline to the point, more facts for readers:
Project vehicle being used for personal gain – There is a blue double cab utility the government purchased for the PNG National Open University Project. This is a high impact project and was allocated about K5 million for scoping of the project this year. Part of this funding was used to purchase a vehicle for the project, to ensure mobility. Although the OHE team responsible for the PNG NOU concept and project rollout is active, the vehicle is being used by the Exotic Branch staff, driven by David and always parked at David’s home at UPNG Fourth banner. Oh let me emphasize, the auditor of the Exotic Branch hardly gets on this vehicle but it’s the females. This vehicle was purchased for the purpose of the PNG Open University Project. This project obviously has not started off, but the vehicle is being used extensively! Careful David, you will soon face the consequences! It may be reasonable to see David and a group of females in this vehicle during public service business hours, but to see them after hours at odd places, like Waterfront and Vision City Mall is questionable. If all these ladies that are seen in this vehicle are actually staff of the Exotic Branch, then are there not drivers at the OHE, who can drop all these ladies off after official hours? Who are these ladies? Don’t they have moral obligations as women? So David, are you implying that you are also the personal driver for all these ladies at the Exotic Branch, whilst the OHE drivers are recruited to drive around all other staff other than staff from the Exotic Branch?
The Job Rotation Strategy introduced by Korap Kavanamur is becoming a sick leach. Again the name itself defines a positive energy, but at OHE, it is those staff David has familial or mutual relations with that are being rotated to higher positions, whereas some in higher positions are rotated to perform at lower positions. Common Mister Strategic Manager, where are you getting advice from? Even worse, there is no timeline to job rotations, nor is there any mechanism to measure performance of rotated staff. It looks even uglier when staff are rotated and OHEs Human Resource section does not take any action to mentor or nurture new staff who are moving into these new positions.
Bias decisions on recruitment - New graduates being recruited to work at OHE are either a graduate of his Strategic Management Program at University of PNG, a church friend from his church, spouse of a student David used to mentor at UPNG. I thought you were a genuine citizen who drove the Vision 2050 Pillar One team, who would be in the business of combating nepotism, but no…you practice NEPOTISM! OHE is now full of strategic management students, for example one is now “acting senior accountant” at OHE…oh my goodness, how did Samuel get that position? It just doesn’t make any logical sense David!
Breaking Public Service General Orders - Oh David, have you given up your teaching job at UPNG? Did you not know that you are breaking your Oath to the Government of the Day and the Public Service General Orders by holding two jobs…one at OHE and the second at UPNG? When you swore an oath to serve as the Director General of the Office of Higher Education, did you not declare that you will be FULLY SERVING in this delegated power and not alternatively as a supervisor, nor as a consultant to any other organization? Heading a public organization is a full-time job David! If you have given up your job at UPNG, why are you still being housed at UPNG’s Staff Residential area, when you are now a Public Servant? Do you still teach students at the postgraduate level? Is this not against the Public Service General Orders? You’re a Strategic Manager, so I can understand your sneaky contracts. I don’t know if anyone at Department of Personal Management has looked into this issue! David stop cheating the people of Papua New Guinea on such a fake identity!
Staff travel – is it necessary to travel over the weekend like on Saturday’s when your official meetings commence on Monday?? You are being paid travel allowances for the unnecessary days you are counting..this is daylight robbery. Public funds paying for your luxury travel to spend a weekend getaway to satisfy your own wants. Are you serving the interest of the people or yourself? Are there not other senior directors and coordinators who are competitive enough to travel and provide relevant technical advice? David, it is becoming stupidly obvious that you are continuously travelling at unnecessary times of the week or day with your Corporate Wife, Lisa Larry. Ooooops..i forgot to mention, Lisa was seen by your staff and security officers, at the Mutual Rumana Building Carpark, folding and packing clothes at the back of your blue five door (car rego: ZGP 219) for an overseas travel around June this year! How do you explain that, David!
Exempting yourself and OHE from complying with the PNG National Qualifications Framework – ensuring quality assurance in our institutions of higher education is a challenge but a very good move towards promoting quality in the sector. I admire how you are advocating on the PNG NQF and telling existing and prospective providers to comply with the PNG NQF. BUT..where does this stand when you have recruited a particular staff who’s qualification is not recognized by the OHE or CHE itself, far worse the institution this staff graduated from is still not a recognized IHE in PNG, in other words it is not quality assured nor accredited! Dr Sebastian Bagrie received his masters and doctoral degree from the much talked about ‘Jubilee Institute of Higher Learning.’ Oh I forgot to mention, he’s also a close friend of yours David! Sebastian was initially engaged for six months as a consultant for the Western Pacific University (Prime Minister’s initiative), then Sebastian was engaged to act as the Assistant Director for the Finance and Administration Branch. Sebastian is now reverted back to being engaged as a consultant. How fishy is this? Is this practice not against the Public Service General Orders?? Or are you helping your friend Sebastian gather enough money for his candidacy for 2017 National Elections? Everyone at OHE knows Dr Bagrie is intending to stand for 2017 National Elections David! Why is Sebastian still holding onto the office vehicle – ZGT 505, when he is now reverted back to being a consultant to OHE? Is OHE still paying for his travel airfares, accommodation and allowances to and from Madang on weekends?
Oh yes, additionally I found out that you even sent your Corporate Wife, Lisa to go for 6-week Diploma in Economic Policy Analysis at the National Research Institute, which was a program specifically for Economists, but somehow you managed to push her through to undertake this program. What is there no voice from the Staff Development Committee? Does it even exist? This training program was unplanned right nor was it unbudgeted for David! Again money wasted! Is this program quality assured as per the standards your officers preach about? Is it recognized by the PNG NQF? So who are you telling to comply with standards when you are ignoring them and recruiting individuals who are graduates of unrecognized institutions, far worse, you are paying for your staff to undertake unrecognized programs like six-week diplomas! Where is your standard? Which level of qualification does this program fall into? Lets see…oh yes the following week after completing the 6-week diploma program, you again sent your dearest to attend a HR training Workshop at Lamana Hotel, then the following week she attended another short term training at Crowne Plaza Hotel! Wow…OHE must have a lot to spend on her wellbeing! I forgot to mention also that all these were UNBUDGETED and UNPLANNED TRAINING PRIORITIES nor activities. What are you rushing Lisa for? Is it to make her competitive enough for a bigger position you will be giving her, under the new Department?
Do these examples tell our stakeholders of the higher education sector that you are excused from complying with the PNG NQF?
With these simple few facts and more examples that could be published, I hope that the Auditor General’s Office will audit OHEs books thoroughly because I just heard that as the budget books close this year, the leftover K101,000 is being used to fund you and your corporate wife’s travel to London in January! For what we don’t know but it sure is a high cost to government!
I will be back with more facts and photos and evidences for all these. But for now, I would like to keep my hopes that David Korap Kavanamur will be monitored and investigated!
