<<Print>>

Ministers, parliamentarians and all stakeholders in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) have been urged to stop paying lip service to the promotion of STIs and let their priorities be reflected in the financial commitments they make.

Mr Ebo Barton-Odro, the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, made the call yesterday when he addressed a high-level dialogue of African ministers and legislators on mobilising STI for Africa’s sustainable development after 2015.

Delivering a statement on behalf of the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, he told the participants, “We should let our priorities be reflected in the financial commitments we make when distributing the national resource envelope.”

Mr Barton-Odro indicated that consistently through reports submitted by the Committee on Environment, Science and Technology, Parliament had observed that the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) had received paltry budgetary allocations, experienced delayed releases and in some cases, the absolute non-release of funds for the ministry to implement its programmes.

Quoting from one of the reports, he said although GH¢932.23 million was allocated for science programmes and a Science Endowment Fund that became operational in 2008, “surprisingly a meagre sum of GH¢31.59 million, representing an insignificant 3.3 per cent of total budgetary allocation, was to be used to finance science and technology related activities”.

He also stated that although budgetary allocations were made for capital expenditure for MESTI in the 2014 budget, there were no releases to the ministry that year.

Mr Barton-Odro also indicated that whereas the budgetary allocation for MESTI was GH¢245,955,307 in 2014, it dropped to GH¢243,399,833 in 2015, representing a reduction by GH¢2,555,474.

Despite the reduction in budgetary allocations for STI, he said “Parliament has been constrained by constitutional imperatives such as contained in Article 108, which limits its ability to review upwards sector budgetary allocations submitted by the Executive to the House.”
Support to science institutions

Standing in for the Vice-President, Mr Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, as the guest of honour, Mr Akwasi Opong Fosu, a Minister of State at the Presidency, pledged the government’s commitment to support all science institutions to carry out their mandate at the end of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Noting that STI was the natural strong launch pad to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), he said multi- stakeholder consultations held the key to achieving them.