LECTURERS at Hong Kong Polytechnic yesterday said the directorate was allowing mismanagement to continue by not suspending staff under investigation. A panel is investigating allegations of research misconducts, abuse of powers, and corruption by two senior staff in the Hotel and Tourism Management Department. ''The senior staff under investigation should be suspended from work to eliminate any further cases of power abuse and mismanagement,'' a lecturer in the department said. The call was supported by chairman of the Polytechnic Staff Association, Dr Gerald Billis. Another lecturer said: ''They are continuing their same style of management - there is only one-way communication and you are being treated like school children listening to instructions.'' Department sources said one of the employees under investigation had overruled a committee's recommended candidate to be a new external examiner to monitor the standard of a tourism course. Nine votes were cast for Professor John Crompton from the United States for his experience as an examiner, his research record, and international academic standing. But the senior employee announced on March 26 that he was nominating Professor Stephen Wanhill from Britain, who had received only two votes. The committee complained about the decision but the employee argued that Professor Wanhill was uniquely qualified for the post. Dean of Business and Information Systems, Professor Edwin Cheng Tai-chiu, said the committee's reservation about the nomination could be brought up at the Faculty Board which would make the final decision. Associate director of the polytechnic and chairman of the investigation panel, Peter Torode, said it was a decision of polytechnic director, Professor Poon Chung-kwong, not to suspend the staff being investigated. Professor Poon was not in Hong Kong yesterday. A member of the panel, Professor Cheng, said the employees should be presumed innocent and he did not see any problem with the operation of the department. Some lecturers from the department said they were demoralised by the events and wanted to get things cleared up as soon as possible.
