Govt asked to lift ban on employment

Kwadwo Baffoe Donkor Dec - 22 - 2015 , 21:57

The Director of the Crops Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-CRI), Dr Stella Ama Ennin, has appealed to the government to lift the embargo on employment to enable the institute to recruit more scientists to replace those retiring.

She said within a spate of three years, the institute had lost close to 100 staff through resignation and retirement, but the institute had since not replaced any of them.

Speaking at the institute’s end-of-year get-together and awards ceremony at Fumesua in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipality, Dr Ennin said the institute had been losing most of its experienced scientists to the universities and other organisations that offered better remunerations and improved conditions of service.

Attrition

She said the rate of staff attrition at the institute, if not checked, would greatly affect it in delivering on its mandate, adding that for the CRI to effectively deliver on its mandate it would require a total of 989 staff but it currently had a staff of 686, a shortfall of 28 per cent.

Dr Ennin said there was the need for the institute to recruit young scientists to enable the experienced ones to train and mentor them before they left the scene.

Currently, she said, that was not the case as most of the experienced scientists were retiring and “we do not have anything like a succession plan where the younger ones could understudy them before they go on retirement.”

She thus appealed to the government to, as a matter of urgency, take a critical look at the staff recruitment for the institute to enable it to recruit new staff to replace the aged and retired ones.

Funding

Dr Ennin further appealed to the government to also provide adequate funding for the institute’s research activities to complement the efforts of external development partners.