PNGBlogs Exclusive "THE SEVUA REPORT" - Dr Albert Schram’s Innocence Is Confirmed
“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.