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Pretoria - The global economic downturn has hit private funding for the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), chief executive Olive Shisana said on Thursday.
The government now contributed 53% of the HSRC’s annual budget, she said at the release of the council’s annual results in Centurion.
Shisana said much of the HSRC’s non-government funding came from organisations in the United States that provided grants.
“Some of the grants that we were getting, you know, they had to reduce them, but not only for us, but for all the projects they were funding in South Africa because of the fact that there was not sufficient funding.”
She said the HSRC was attempting to diversify its sources of revenue, so as not to be too dependent on grants from the US.
Funding from private companies or organisations in South Africa for the social sciences was minimal.
CFO dismissed
On the dismissal of HSRC chief financial officer Audrey Ohlson for misconduct on Tuesday, Shisana said the matter related to the appointment of a “team that came in to assist with a variety of issues related to finance“.
“She did not follow the tender procedures in appointing the service provider and they were paid more than they should have been paid the knowledge of the CEO.”
Shisana said forensic investigators had not found indications that Ohlson benefited from the tender, which she said had cost R3m more than it should have.
Shisana announced that the HSRC had won the bid to host the 2015 World Social Science Forum conference.Hosting the conference, which would be held in Durban, would boost social sciences on the continent.
“The social sciences in sub-Saharan Africa operate under conditions that are seriously under-resourced,” she said.
The government now contributed 53% of the HSRC’s annual budget, she said at the release of the council’s annual results in Centurion.
Shisana said much of the HSRC’s non-government funding came from organisations in the United States that provided grants.
“Some of the grants that we were getting, you know, they had to reduce them, but not only for us, but for all the projects they were funding in South Africa because of the fact that there was not sufficient funding.”
She said the HSRC was attempting to diversify its sources of revenue, so as not to be too dependent on grants from the US.
Funding from private companies or organisations in South Africa for the social sciences was minimal.
CFO dismissed
On the dismissal of HSRC chief financial officer Audrey Ohlson for misconduct on Tuesday, Shisana said the matter related to the appointment of a “team that came in to assist with a variety of issues related to finance“.
“She did not follow the tender procedures in appointing the service provider and they were paid more than they should have been paid the knowledge of the CEO.”
Shisana said forensic investigators had not found indications that Ohlson benefited from the tender, which she said had cost R3m more than it should have.
Shisana announced that the HSRC had won the bid to host the 2015 World Social Science Forum conference.Hosting the conference, which would be held in Durban, would boost social sciences on the continent.
“The social sciences in sub-Saharan Africa operate under conditions that are seriously under-resourced,” she said.
