GAAS Experiencing severe budgetary constraints

THE Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS) is experiencing severe budgetary constraints in its efforts to contribute towards national development, a source close to the academy has disclosed.
The source said although the academy was endowed with adequate human resource, it lacked funds to undertake service activities to impart knowledge to the public in the fields of the Arts, Science and the Humanities. It also lacked funds for administrative procedures and the payment of personnel salaries.
Conditions at the academy, which was founded by the first President of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, in 1959 as a think tank, had deteriorated, the source said, noting that it had been a government subvented agency ever since its establishment and still depended on inadequate funds under the Consolidated Fund, just like any other government agency.
The Director-General of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Professor E. Owusu Bennoah, in an address read on his behalf by Dr W. A. Plahar, the Director of the Food Research Institute (FRI), at a workshop to mark this year’s Scientific Revival Day of Africa in Accra, also noted that the academy was under budgetary constraints, a situation that was impeding its activities.
He cautioned that without scientific progress, no amount of achievement in other directions could ensure the health, prosperity and security of Ghana as a nation.
He pointed out that policy issues would not be resolved by citizens, scientists, business executives or government officials working alone but that they required the concerted effort of all sectors of society, adding that “the policy decisions we make today will determine whether historic opportunities will be seized or squandered”.
Another source close to the academy indicated that though the government had no influence on its activities, its influence on the academy was the budgetary constraint, noting that the academy, which was now under the Ministry of Education, had to present its budget to the government through the National Council for Tertiary Education.
He remarked that the fellows of the academy were drawn from various professional fields and were people who had excelled in their various fields of endeavour and had the potential to spearhead Ghana’s developmental agenda if well resourced.
According to him, the specific aims and objectives of the academy were to encourage the study and the extension of knowledge in the Humanities and Arts and Sciences, establish and maintain standards in those endeavours and recognise and award individuals and institutions for their contributions towards national development.
Apart from these, he said, the academy also undertook what it called preparation of evidence based on reports to the government.
For example, he said when the recent educational reform was proposed, the academy was asked by the government to present its recommendations on the past reforms and based on that it would advise the government on what measures to take.
He, however, noted that the support the academy gave to the government was not made public because the government was not bound to take its advice or recommendations.
Some of the activities of the academy, he noted, included organising public lectures, symposiums and round-table conferences like the J. B. Danquah Memorial Lectures and the Founder’s Week anniversary of Dr Kwame Nkrumah in November every year, in collaboration with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES).
He said it was the duty of the government, as other governments in Africa, Europe and the US had done, to provide seed money as an investment fund to run the academy to achieve its constitutional purpose.