Top official says there's “no need to panic” as Treasury curbs hiring, travel and infrastructure spending
A government spending freeze could delay new programmes and curb recruitment in the country’s science department, however there is “no need to panic” the country’s top-ranking science official has said.
Research Professional News spoke to Phil Mjwara, director-general of the Department of Science and Innovation, on 13 September, after it emerged the Treasury had asked all departments to rein in spending.
The reason for the Treasury’s instruction is that the country has underperformed on its anticipated revenue collection in the first half of the year. All departments have been asked to limit spending on recruitment, meetings and conferences, staff travel and infrastructure procurement from 15 September.
The Treasury said it faced “unprecedented challenges” for the current financial year, leaving it with “little choice” but to propose stringent cost cutting measures.
Expected delays
Mjwara said the DSI is planning to save money by delaying the rollout of new programmes in ways that don’t affect their long-term trajectory. The Innovation Fund might see calls for proposals with smaller budgets than initially planned because of the cost cutting, he said.
Another programme that might be rolled out slowly is the country’s vaccine innovation programme. “We’ve agreed to start it very slowly, and then ramp it up in years three and four. That’s the sort of reprogramming that we are talking about,” he said.
Mjwara said the DSI will have to manage with its current staff when it implements a new departmental strategy in the shape of the country’s decadal plan for science, he added. “We may have to retrain people.”
Meanwhile, he assures that the freeze on meetings and travel will not affect the Science Forum South Africa annual get-together planned for December in Pretoria.
Staff at the country’s National Research Foundation received a memo on 8 March outlining the implementation details of the Treasury directive. The NRF memo states that no infrastructure projects are in the agency’s pipeline this year or next, and that it therefore does not expect to be affected by that part of the Treasury directive.
Responding to questions from Research Professional News on how the hiring freeze will affect the NRF’s current vacancies, a spokesperson said it was “too soon to give specifics”.
Mjwara said the type of infrastructure the Treasury was targeting was not the kind that his department was involved in. “We’re not intending to build roads,” he said.
However, he added that his department was keen to invest more in science equipment. “We would like to expand the infrastructure for the science, technology and innovation system,” he said.